Leadtek A400 GT TDH crappy OC

[darXoul]

I've just built a new Athlon 64 system and it runs great but I wonder why my Leadtek 6800 GT overclocks so poorly. I've seen a few in action and they all reached settings between 405 and 430 core, 1100-1200 memory without any problems. Mine, however, artifacts and even freezes in Far Cry already at 400/1100. I realize that overclocking is never guaranteed but do you guys think I simply got a "bad" card or can I tweak it somehow?

I really wanted to reach 6800 Ultra specs, mainly for my own irrational satisfaction My PC is cooled well, with 2 fan Be Quiet! 450W PSU, 2 120 mm case fans and 1 80 mm case fan.
The card's temperature seems to be fairly low even under full load but it artifacts anyway. What can I do to remedy this? Increase AGP voltage a bit? Dismount the card's heatsink and use my AS5 thermal grease?

The card is fast even at stock speed but it's somewhat frustrating that all Leadtek GTs around reach Ultra specs without breaking a sweat and only mine does not :/

 

[otispunkmeyer]

how good are those psu's in quality?

6800gts need some good healthy amps given to them.....i got an enermax with dual 12v rails.....tho coolbits reckons my max overclock is 407/1.11ghz, i run 400/1.1ghz all day and the only program not to like these settings is 3d mark 03. which i dont really care about so its no big deal

no point in goin above ultra speeds anyway less u got a fx53 n above.

increasing agp voltage wont dont jack...leave it alone.

see what ur 12v rail is pulling

i would say PSU first, then try other cooling solutions 2nd

infact why not try running ur rig with say, jus 1 120mm fan, 1 hdd and no cd drives or something, then see how u can overclock, if it gets better then u know ur psu needs attention

if it still artifacts then ur unlucky......thats why these chips goin into 6800gts an not ultras coz theyre not guarranteed to do ultra speeds

 

[otispunkmeyer]

i have the same leadtek card u do by the way..... i love the shiny copper cooler...and the temps are nice an low, despite leadtek having a slower fan than stock 6800gt coolers.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

i would reccomend u get coolbits...(not coolbits 2) jus coolbits.....google it, its jus a registry hack, all u do is unzip it and double click on it, an pick yes to add it to the registry, then when u go to the NV control panel you get some extra features....i try to avoid using other programs, like the winfox program

 

[nRollo]

How would anyone here be able to tell you why your card doesn't OC? Maybe the part just won't run at Ultra speed?

You could just buy an Ultra.

In any case, I doubt you'd notice much difference in a GT or a GT at Ultra speeds, so be happy.

 

[caz67]

It may be faulty???

 

[sbuckler]

I suspect more then half the GT's out there don't run at ultra speeds, you just don't hear about them because the only ones who post there spec's are the one's who got lucky. Half of them can't run everything stable at the speeds they post (e.g. otispunkmeyer says his doesn't do 3dmark03 at ultra specs which is honest to say, but I bet many others managed to get it through one test once with glitches and then quote that as their bragging speed).
Unfortunately it just didn't work out for you - if you really want guaranteed ultra performance then you've got to buy one. On a plus point a few herts here or there won't really make a noticable difference playing games - it's just bragging rights really. If bragging is really important you could just lie - that's the cheapest way to do it, and I doubt you will be alone

 

[darXoul]

Thanks for your feedback, guys.

My PSU is very good. It's a quality product, just not a big name brand in the US. In the comparisons I read it consistently defeated its Antec and Thermaltake counterparts. It provided more stable voltages and it delivers 22A on 12V rail - better than Antec TruePower 430W and Tt Silent PurePower 480W. It can't be the PSU.

Rollo, I am happy. I did not expect fortune telling or clairvoyance from you. I just wanted some feedback. I realize a PC system is probably too individual and complex to judge why a card doesn't OC as well as it "should". I also realize that if someone wants Ultra speeds, he should buy an Ultra. I also know that not all cards OC great and that OC is never guaranteed. I just wanted some ideas and opinions. That's all.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: caz67
It may be faulty???

If it works at stock speeds, it's not faulty.

 

[nRollo]

DarXoul:

Rollo, I am happy. I did not expect fortune telling or clairvoyance from you. I just wanted some feedback. I realize a PC system is probably too individual and complex to judge why a card doesn't OC as well as it "should". I also realize that if someone wants Ultra speeds, he should buy an Ultra. I also know that not all cards OC great and that OC is never guaranteed. I just wanted some ideas and opinions. That's all.

I was just responding to your post as succinctly as possible?

I've just built a new Athlon 64 system and it runs great but I wonder why my Leadtek 6800 GT overclocks so poorly. I've seen a few in action and they all reached settings between 405 and 430 core, 1100-1200 memory without any problems.

Those were on different motherboards, in different cases, with different psus, and have different GPUs/RAM on them.

Mine, however, artifacts and even freezes in Far Cry already at 400/1100. I realize that overclocking is never guaranteed but do you guys think I simply got a "bad" card or can I tweak it somehow?

A card that runs at it's advertised speed is not a "bad" card, it's a card that gave you what you paid for. To return it because it doesn't OC well would waste other people's time and money. You can try aftermarket cooling, thermal conductant, and increasing the voltage, but to do so voids your warranty and puts you in the position of eating a big loss or stealing another card if you kill it.

I really wanted to reach 6800 Ultra specs, mainly for my own irrational satisfaction

You don't always get something for nothing, even when you have an irrational desire for it?

My PC is cooled well, with 2 fan Be Quiet! 450W PSU, 2 120 mm case fans and 1 80 mm case fan.
The card's temperature seems to be fairly low even under full load but it artifacts anyway. What can I do to remedy this? Increase AGP voltage a bit? Dismount the card's heatsink and use my AS5 thermal grease?

The RAM/GPU may not be capable of running at those speeds. There is a reason they sell speed binned parts, espececially early in the manufacturing run. All the things you mention will void your warranty and risk your $400 investment if you decide to push this card that may not be able to give you the free performance you "irrationally" desire.

The card is fast even at stock speed but it's somewhat frustrating that all Leadtek GTs around reach Ultra specs without breaking a sweat and only mine does not :/

You are aware of a statistically insignificant number of Leadtek GTs, you can't say they all will do this.

Would you have rather heard all that?

 

[Creig]

It's not a "bad" card unless it won't run without problems at default speed. A few cards overclock ridiculously high, the majority overclock to X degree and a few will barely budge from stock settings. You just had the bad luck of receiving one from the low end of the bell curve.

 

[darXoul]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Those were on different motherboards, in different cases, with different psus, and have different GPUs/RAM on them.

Yes, that's why I'm not really complaining, even though deep in my heart, I am a tiny bit disappointed knowing that I have very good case cooling and a quality mobo/PSU

A card that runs at it's advertised speed is not a "bad" card, it's a card that gave you what you paid for. To return it because it doesn't OC well would waste other people's time and money.

Yes, I know that. I don't intend to return a card that is fully functional just because it doesn't reach specifications of a product which is like 200 bucks more expensive. That would be hypocrisy.

You can try aftermarket cooling, thermal conductant, and increasing the voltage, but to do so voids your warranty and puts you in the position of eating a big loss or stealing another card if you kill it.

I'm aware of that. Stealing is not an option of course I know that aftermarket cooling is not worth it so I won't bother with that.

You don't always get something for nothing, even when you have an irrational desire for it?

No, it's just this single particular case. No insinuations please.

All the things you mention will void your warranty and risk your $400 investment if you decide to push this card that may not be able to give you the free performance you "irrationally" desire.

Correct, except for the price. I actually paid ca. $550 for the card. Ultras cost around $750 here. Europe is expensive.

You are aware of a statistically insignificant number of Leadtek GTs, you can't say they all will do this.

This is true but consider the following:

if you draw 5 balls from a box and all of them are black, it will be fairly logical and understandable if you assume that all of them are black - even if the box actually contains 90% of red balls.


Quite frankly, I did not expect such a debate. Has my post actually... irritated you, Rollo?

 

[nRollo]

Quite frankly, I did not expect such a debate. Has my post actually... irritated you, Rollo?

No. You seemed annoyed with my very brief post, so I expanded upon it.

 

[jim1976]

Weird. Leadtek provides high quality products.
And I haven't seen yet a Leadtek 6800GT having o/c problems.
Did you check the card? Maybe something is not fitted correctly.
My MSI is auto detected at 420/114 and I tested it at 428/1.15 without no issues at all in benchmarks/gaming so far.
I would expect Leadtek to reach similar speeds (if not better)

 

[billyjak]

I run a special line conditioner in between my card and molex connector, it's suppose to keep the power signal clean and steady.

 

[darXoul]

Fine, Rollo. Your brief post didn't annoy me either, so it's all good.

Jim1976, you mentioned "auto detection". I keep hearing about it all the time but (excuse my ignorance) I'm not really sure what you guys mean. Some Coolbits feature? BTW, can the old Coolbits that worked with Detonators at the time of early GeForces also be used for the new ForceWare drivers?

 

[otispunkmeyer]

if u are using coolbits......go to the clock frequencies tab, and when manual overclocking is selected you will see two buttons about 1/4 way up the panel...one says test changes, the other says detect optimal frequencies

if u pick the latter, then the control panel will begin testing your card at various speeds until it finds a supposed optimal speed for both ram and core.

mines 407/1.11ghz......but even at 400/1.1ghz 3d mark 03 will not get past wings of fury, and i saw 4 rather large artifacts in 01. also so wired flashin textures in splinter cell..when viewd at certain angles.

i have now decided jus to leave mine at 380/1.0 ghz and tbh i couldnt tell the difference

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: darXoul
Fine, Rollo. Your brief post didn't annoy me either, so it's all good.

Jim1976, you mentioned "auto detection". I keep hearing about it all the time but (excuse my ignorance) I'm not really sure what you guys mean. Some Coolbits feature? BTW, can the old Coolbits that worked with Detonators at the time of early GeForces also be used for the new ForceWare drivers?

Yes it's a coolbit feature. I don't know if old Coolbits ran in Forceware,but why risking it. We are talkin about a 5-10kb program I think.

 

[darXoul]

Well, well... Listen, guys.

I've just enabled Coolbits. I didn't install anything, I just modified my registry. I used the auto-detection feature and...

- the first time my comp crashed (after long testing, the progress bar halted, my mouse stopped responding and finally the screen went black and into sleep mode),

- the second time (yes, I'm stubborn ), the card was auto detected @ 424 / 1.14, yet it already causes problems at the aforementioned "stock Ultra" speeds (400/1.1).

Now, this is a bit funny. 424 is quite a bit above 400. Coolbits lies

 

[darXoul]

Update: I've just OCed the card and played Far Cry for a while. It's quite weird but even though I reduced the speed of my 3 case fans and clocked the card @ 420/1140 (close to Coolbits auto detect), it ran FC with no problems whatsoever. While yesterday I got artifacts (black streaks of textureless surfaces even in the air, plus blue squares on those red plants), today nothing bad happened. I changed the settings to 400/1100 then. Only the core temperature rose to over 70C after a few minutes of Far Cry but I guess it's normal for non-OCed cards. Well, I'm gonna keep playing around with OC, but in the end I guess I'll just go back to stock speeds which are more than enough anyway

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: darXoul
Update: I've just OCed the card and played Far Cry for a while. It's quite weird but even though I reduced the speed of my 3 case fans and clocked the card @ 420/1140 (close to Coolbits auto detect), it ran FC with no problems whatsoever. While yesterday I got artifacts (black streaks of textureless surfaces even in the air, plus blue squares on those red plants), today nothing bad happened. I changed the settings to 400/1100 then. Only the core temperature rose to over 70C after a few minutes of Far Cry but I guess it's normal for non-OCed cards. Well, I'm gonna keep playing around with OC, but in the end I guess I'll just go back to stock speeds which are more than enough anyway

Well I guess you already know that but you mentioned that you reduced the speed of your 3 case fans and you got better results. Just a wild guess.
Maybe the airflow in your case is not so good. If the air is not blowed and extracted correctly then this might cause your gpu to overheat so much.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

yeah air flow is key, im about to remove alot of turbulence from my case by sorting that rats nest out with some cable sleeving from vantec

cant remember what was better tho.....2 have say 2 x120mm fans at same speed or to have jus 1 fan at the rear to kinda suck air in from the front by creating a low pressure in the case.

 

[darXoul]

Interesting. My ambient temp went up by 2-3 degrees so it's unlikely that slowing down my fans helped here but who knows... everything is possible. If the system runs fine long term, I'll be really happy. Right now, it's really quiet despite 7 fans in my box (3 case, 2 PSU, 1 video, 1 CPU). A64 3200+ NC runs just fine at 2.4 GHz, without increasing vcore or vdimm (no need for that - DDR434 modules). If my Leadtek maintains its stability at Ultra specs, why not leave it that way... If I experience alarming temps or even slightest artifacting, I'll just go back to stock speeds. The comp is fast without any overclocking, too.

 

[darXoul]

UPDATE:

I've been testing my GT for a few hours and here are my results/conclusions:

-> 1100 memory is not a problem; rock stable, no issues whatsoever;

-> the core only goes up to 370 (or 37x) - already 380 causes freezes and slight artifacting; 400 causes more or less frequent freezes and artifacts all over the place in some cases (e.g. Deux Ex: Invisible War);

-> now the hammer: even though it's not supposed to be helfpul, increasing AGP voltage from 1.5 to 1.7 made the card almost perfectly stable at 400/1100 (!!!) - yes, it tends to freeze for a second in some games e.g. after loading a savegame and the first time I launched Far Cry, I got some artifacts on water surface but after that, games ran stable. Far Cry with no issues, DX:IW without any problems, Thief: Deadly Shadows with a short freeze in the menu but fine after that, Doom 3 - absolutely flawless experience.

I know it sounds weird but like I said, 400/1.1 was completely out of reach @ 1.5V AGP. Now, it's almost flawless, except for the brief freezes at startup that could be caused by WinFox which never seems to be able to OC 2D and 3D equally, even though I specify exactly equal speeds.

Comments?

BTW, one more interesting thing - OCing my Leadtek to e.g. 380 or 400 MHz core caused DX:IW to run worse than at stock frequencies. Now, at 1.7V, it runs visibly better than at those "unstable" OCs though - smooth just like at 350 but maintaining a bit higher fps.

 

[SimpLe Kid]

The PSU 450W "Be Quiet!", it has a connection for Serial ATA?