New PNY 6800 benchmarks and OC

[Zardnok]

I got in on the latest CompUSA deal for the PNY 6800 and it showed up the very next day!

I decided to install it and see what it would do in my current system. My system consists of an AMD Mobile 2600 running at 12.5X200, 2X512 meg Samsung pc3500 ram, Shuttle AN35N-Ultra mobo, Thermal take 480 watt powersupply, 80 gig WD HD, and misc fans and temperature monitors.

First day out of the box stock settings (325-700) and using the 66.93 drivers
3dmark03 8,770
3dmark05 rev1.0 3,339
3dmark05 rev 1.10 3,313

Decent enough scores I guess to start things out.

Second day, I installed Riva tuner to see if I could unlock the extra pipelines; no dice. I have to wait for Rivatuner 15.3 to come out. Anyways, I spent all my time trying to unlock so no benchmarks or clocking done. I changed drivers to the Omega 66.71 drivers so it would be compatible with Riva Tuner.

Third day, I wanted to get a fresh days benchmark to compare everything else to.

First Stock speeds using Omega 66.71 drivers
3dmark03 8,591
3dmark05 2,576

These scores were a considerable drop from my first evenings attempts. I decided since I could not use the Riva Tuner to unlock the card anyway that I would revert to the 66.93 drivers and retest.

Stock speeds 66.93 drivers
3dmark03 8,712
3dmark05 3,240

These drivers definitely scored better than the Omega 66.71 drivers did although the score still wasn't as good as the first night I got it. I decided to give overclocking a try to see what sort of numbers I could get. I fired up Riva Tuner, but could not figure out how to enable overclocking. I decided to download Coolbits instead. Got Coolbits installed and rebooted the machine to get a fresh dektop to start my days benchmarks.

Hit auto-detect for overclocking speed. Came back 332-714, well that didn't seem like much of an increase from 325-700, so I hit auto-detect again. This time it came back with 358-766, which seemed a lot better to me. I hit auto detect a third time and it came out with 394-838 which sounded like a winner. I forgot to hit "take effect on restart" though so when it rebooted it was at stock speeds. Back through auto-detect again. First was 331-712 which was really close to what it detected first run. Second auto-detect was 394-838 again so I decided to try this one again. Hit apply and take effect on restart.

Reboot time. Everything powers up great and I go into Nvidia properties to verify clock speeds. It shows up as 394-838 which is awesome. I decide to check Riva Tuner as well to see what it says. Riva Tuner has the core still at stock 324 and the memory is at 841! Hmmm, well I decide to simply see what it spits out benchmark wise.

Coolbits set to 394-838 using 66.93 drivers
3dmark03 10,178

POW! I wanted a 10k+ card and this got it for me. I noticed something though as I scrolled through the project details, it had the core listed at 324 and the memory at 842. Well that was rather shocking to me. I knew I had the core set to 394, so I went back and checked it. I decided to reboot and see if it would hit again.

Reboot time and I decide to see what I get out of 3dmark05

Coolbits set to 394-838 using 66.93 drivers
3dmark05 3,890

I scrolled through the project details and it showed up with 395-842. I figured that it must have taken the upgraded speeds. Since the first run through 3dmark03 did not show the core overclocked any, I decided to reboot again and run that test.

Coolbits set to 395-839 using 66.93
3dmark03 10,177

I scrolled down the project details and it showed up at 395core and 842memory. Well now the core was registering as overclocked, but the score was vertually identical. Was the first score a valid score with overclocking and the core speed simply didn't register?

Anyways, enough rambling by me. I thought I would toss out some scores and let everyone know my experiences.

Zard
AMD Mobile 2600+ at 12.5X200
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra
PNY 6800 at 395/842
2X512 Samsung PC3500

 

[perillo34]

it does that sometimes not sure why, but it misrepresents some of the peoples scores out there who seem like they are gettting better scores with less of a gpu oced, it only happens on the gpu for some apparent reason.

 

[hellblazer]

Originally posted by: Zardnok
Second day, I installed Riva tuner to see if I could unlock the extra pipelines; no dice. I have to wait for Rivatuner 15.3 to come out. I changed drivers to the Omega 66.71 drivers so it would be compatible with Riva Tuner.

These scores were a considerable drop from my first evenings attempts. I decided since I could not use the Riva Tuner to unlock the card anyway that I would revert to the 66.93 drivers and retest.

I just got the same card. Why do you have to wait for the next version of rivatuner to unlock the four extra pipes? Are none of the older drivers compatible with rivatuner? Is this problem specific to the PNY 6800? I haven't tried to unlock it yet, and I'd like to learn from your experience about with set of drivers I should install to unlock the extra pipes.

 

[zerocool84]

damn how did the auto detect go for that high....wow thats high for auto detect for me, the highest auto will do for me is like 365/730 which is waaaaaaaaay low

 

[klah]

Originally posted by: Zardnok

Reboot time. Everything powers up great and I go into Nvidia properties to verify clock speeds. It shows up as 394-838 which is awesome. I decide to check Riva Tuner as well to see what it says. Riva Tuner has the core still at stock 324 and the memory is at 841! Hmmm, well I decide to simply see what it spits out benchmark wise.

There are seperate clocks for 2d/3d. When you are looking at riva tuner it is in 2d mode at 325MHz. When 3d is detected it will change to 394MHz. Memory speed stays the same in both modes.

 

[bradyapba]

im running an athlon 64 3000+ Oc'ed from 1.8 to 2.4, 1 gig of PNP dual channel ram 3200, 200 gig HD, 500W general PSW, mSi mobo.

I did all the same types of tests you did. I couldn't unlock the pipes either without artifacts. They unlocked.. and gave me a 800 plus increase in mark03, but way too many artifacts. I was able to leave the pixel shader unlocked though. I OC'ed the VC to 380/790

My final mark03 score was 10,512. I was very happy with this score.


As far as waiting for the new Riva.. i heard the new riva will let you try and unlock each pipe....becuase maybe they all aren't damaged.I could be off base on that, but that is what I have read!


I love the scores and OC's i got from this card for $200, it was an unbelivable value.

Chris

 

[hellblazer]

I did some reading up on other threads and learned more about the situation with rivatuner and the PNY. My card only auto detected (after many attempts at 345/770). Im running it at 351/777. I have the old version with the black power connector, so hopefully I got a good pcb with an average gpu. I'm relying on that to put me over the 10000 2003 hump. Im at 9300 right now on a barton at 2377.

In any event, the card was a good value for me as I have been running a 4600 for 2 1/2 years, and my card before that was a deforce 256 that I got second hand from a friend who bought one of the geforce 2 series card. This card is better than a 9800xt which less than a year ago was selling for 299.

 

[Zardnok]

Originally posted by: hellblazer
I just got the same card. Why do you have to wait for the next version of rivatuner to unlock the four extra pipes? Are none of the older drivers compatible with rivatuner? Is this problem specific to the PNY 6800? I haven't tried to unlock it yet, and I'd like to learn from your experience about with set of drivers I should install to unlock the extra pipes.

The newer 6800s have a white power molex and a gold bar across the top of the card. These cards are locked differently than the older 6800s. Unwinder over at Guru3d created Riva-Tuner to unlock the 6800 series. The current Riva-Tuner is 15.2 and works for many of the older 6800 cards. 15.2 does not work for the latest generation 6800s though. If you have a white molex and a gold bar across the top of your card, it can only be unlocked by the latest version which will be 15.3. 15.3 is out of beta now and Unwinder has said he will release it this month, although nothing more specific date wise given. Of the people that used 15.3 in beta, all of them reported that they were able to unlock the pipelines. I took that as a good sign and look forward to the 15.3 release!

As for Riva Tuner being compatable with the latest drivers, Riva-Tuner 15.2 was not compatabile with the 66.93 drivers. I think 66.82 was the latest drivers supported. I used the Omage 66.71 drivers when I was playing around with my 6800 simply because they were the easiest for me to get and I had good experience with Omega drivers in the past.

Originally posted by: zerocool84damn how did the auto detect go for that high....wow thats high for auto detect for me, the highest auto will do for me is like 365/730 which is waaaaaaaaay low

I was pleasantly surprised myself. I have a considerable amount of cooling in my case, but the NV-5 I ordered has not arrived yet, so I am still on stock cooling. My case temps are 25C under full load. My CPU temp is 27 idle and 35 load. I have a thermal lead inserted between the fins on the stock 6800 heatsink and they sit at 28 or so. When I get my NV-5 I will mount the thermal probe securely and get accurate readings. I hit the auto-detect a few times before it arrived at those numbers. I was happy with what I got from those numbers and have not tried to increase any farther. I am sure once I get the NV-5 and more cooling I can push the limits a bit more. I am a bit paranoid of juicing things until I know the cooling is sufficient. I have run 3d03 and 3d05 multiple times and played ours of EQ without artifacts running these settings, so I got lucky I guess.

Originally posted by: klahThere are seperate clocks for 2d/3d. When you are looking at riva tuner it is in 2d mode at 325MHz. When 3d is detected it will change to 394MHz. Memory speed stays the same in both modes.

DOH! Thanks. It seems so obvious now that you mention it.

Originally posted by: bradyapbaI did all the same types of tests you did. I couldn't unlock the pipes either without artifacts. They unlocked.. and gave me a 800 plus increase in mark03, but way too many artifacts. I was able to leave the pixel shader unlocked though. I OC'ed the VC to 380/790

If you were able to unlock the extra pipe-lines and got artifacts it means that your card has physically damaged pipelines and that was why they were disabled. There is nothing you can do to make it better. All the new Riva-Tuner will do is provide you with another means to unlock broken pipelines.

 

[hellblazer]

I have the old version with the black connector. I'm going to try rivatuner now (fingers crossed). Which windows 2000 driver version should I use? 61.81 isn't in the 2000 archive.

 

[hellblazer]

I just tested it. There are blue square artifacts on half of the 3dmark2003 tests. They are in the background, but still too noticible to be playable. The pipes are the curprit. Does anytone know how compusas holiday return policy works? Can I exchange an open box for another without the 15% restocking fee? I know that they have a "holiday return policy" where you can return stuff after christmas, but it isnt specific as to whether a 15% restocking fee applies. I sent an email to compusa and the support person was intentionally shepish in their answer, so the policy is still unclear to me.

I hoped to have grandiose reports like the majority of you who are unlocking these things with no problems or over clocking by 100/100+.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: hellblazer
I just tested it. There are blue square artifacts on half of the 3dmark2003 tests. They are in the background, but still too noticible to be playable. The pipes are the curprit. Does anytone know how compusas holiday return policy works? Can I exchange an open box for another without the 15% restocking fee? I know that they have a "holiday return policy" where you can return stuff after christmas, but it isnt specific as to whether a 15% restocking fee applies. I sent an email to compusa and the support person was intentionally shepish in their answer, so the policy is still unclear to me. I hoped to have grandiose reports like the majority of you who are unlocking these things with no problems or over clocking by 100/100+.

Let me ask you this - when you buy a lottery/scratch ticket, and you don't win, are you entitled to exchange it until you get a winning one?

If you start playing with "overclocking tools", in an attempt to unlock extra pipelines in your card (that were factory-disabled, because you didn't pay for them), then you've already voided your mfg warranty.

If you want to play the overclocking game, then make sure that you can afford the cost of entry. Not everyone wins, and when you try to cheat the game, it costs everyone a little bit more. That's not fair, please don't do it. (Believe me, I'm being gentle here, you don't want to encounted the mob wrath for unjust-RMAs on this board.)

Originally posted by: hellblazer
In any event, the card was a good value for me as I have been running a 4600 for 2 1/2 years

If the card is indeed a "good value", then why not keep it? 3DMark scores aren't everything in this world, you know.

I might also mentioned that artifacts could also be caused by poor power/poor cooling, you might want to attempt to improve those (more case airflow - I'm not suggesting removing the GPU cooler), better/stronger PSU, and then re-test and see what happens. Also, different games artifact different ways. You might still be able to find a way to come out ahead with this.

 

[Zardnok]

I have not had the chance to unlock my card as of yet because I need the latest RivaTuner, but I am sufficiently impressed with this card as is to justify the money I spent. I think the vast majority of folks that buy these cards know going in that it is a coin flip. If it goes one way, you have a great card, and if it goes the other way, you still have a great card.

 

[bradyapba]

zardnok,

thanks for the update on the rivatuner. I do know someone is working on a way to unlock the pipes one at a time, its just not rivatuner. Sometimes my reading of overclocking forums run together

I am in no way complaining the pipes are damaged. I am really happy with my purchase. $199 is a heck of a price for 6800 vanilla card. I did get the shader unlocked, and i got a decent OC of about 12%. Its running smooth as silk, and i am getting 10,500 scores in mark03. No complaints from me at all. The next cheapest 6800 is around 270. I just didn't have $270 to spend. $199 is a great deal for a great card. Im very happy!

But I am upgrading from a ti4200, so how can I not be happy!!! Though I loved my gainward ti4200 golden sample. That bad was a heck of an overclocker in its day, for a heck of a price. I got a good 2 to 2.5 years out of him. Im gonna miss his red pcb. Well ok, not really, hes sitting in my wifes computer now.

Chris