Piss-Poor o/c on an eVga 6800GT

[Rebel7254]

I can't even get the core farther than 370 MHz without it failing the internal test or whatever that it says you must run before you apply the overclock (coolbits). The memory tests fine at 1.1 GHz though, haven't tried to go any higher or test it in any 3d apps. My case temperature is 37 C, which I know isn't too cool but it's because the cooling in the room I am in isn't very good. Is that my problem?

I'm just disappointed. Everywhere I look ppl with 6800 GT's getting to Ultra speeds (400/1100) using stock cooling without any problems whatsoever, many of them going beyond those speeds. My last graphics card, a Hercules R9700 Pro, was worthless for overclocking as well. I can't believe I got two crappy cards in a row.......well I can't say crappy because they work flawlessly at stock speeds. But God forbid if you wanna do a little overclocking. :|

Could it be that the internal test is wrong, or is it a sure thing that if it doesn't pass that test that it won't be stable? I just can't believe I ended up with another p.o.s. overclocker.

Check out the link to my system specs in my sig.

 

[Manzelle]

Originally posted by: Rebel7254
I can't even get the core farther than 370 MHz without it failing the internal test or whatever that it says you must run before you apply the overclock (coolbits). The memory tests fine at 1.1 GHz though, haven't tried to go any higher or test it in any 3d apps. My case temperature is 37 C, which I know isn't too cool but it's because the cooling in the room I am in isn't very good. Is that my problem?

I'm just disappointed. Everywhere I look ppl with 6800 GT's getting to Ultra speeds (400/1100) using stock cooling without any problems whatsoever, many of them going beyond those speeds. My last graphics card, a Hercules R9700 Pro, was worthless for overclocking as well. I can't believe I got two crappy cards in a row.......well I can't say crappy because they work flawlessly at stock speeds. But God forbid if you wanna do a little overclocking. :|

Could it be that the internal test is wrong, or is it a sure thing that if it doesn't pass that test that it won't be stable? I just can't believe I ended up with another p.o.s. overclocker.

Check out the link to my system specs in my sig.

Yes I would definitely say 37C for system temp is your problem...my system temp never raises above 20C though I do keep it cool in the room...if decreasing the room temp isn't an option I would suggest third party cooling for the vidcard...hell, I would suggest that anyway now that the new VGA Silencer's are out...

 

[Rebel7254]

Ok I now have the side of my case off with two big house fans blowing on it. It still won't go lower than 33. I think you must be right though, because that allowed me to get 15 more MHz out of the core. It fails somewhere between 485 and 490.

Ok the maximum settings it will allow me to set is the combo of 385 / 1060. Memory won't do 1.1 GHz when the core is up there. Still crappy.

 

[Rebel7254]

I just ran a 3dmark03 with those settings.....a few artifacts on the nature test, so I guess the initial test it makes you go through is pretty accurate. Should have just waited and bought an Ultra.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Rebel7254
I can't even get the core farther than 370 MHz without it failing the internal test or whatever that it says you must run before you apply the overclock (coolbits). The memory tests fine at 1.1 GHz though, haven't tried to go any higher or test it in any 3d apps. My case temperature is 37 C, which I know isn't too cool but it's because the cooling in the room I am in isn't very good. Is that my problem?

I'm just disappointed. Everywhere I look ppl with 6800 GT's getting to Ultra speeds (400/1100) using stock cooling without any problems whatsoever, many of them going beyond those speeds. My last graphics card, a Hercules R9700 Pro, was worthless for overclocking as well. I can't believe I got two crappy cards in a row.......well I can't say crappy because they work flawlessly at stock speeds. But God forbid if you wanna do a little overclocking. :|

Could it be that the internal test is wrong, or is it a sure thing that if it doesn't pass that test that it won't be stable? I just can't believe I ended up with another p.o.s. overclocker.

Check out the link to my system specs in my sig.

You are apparently unfamiliar with the concepts "it only has to run at advertised spec" and "YMMV".

Have you ever thought it might be things other than the card?

I notice you don't list your psu? The quality of power supplied to components makes a big difference for OCing. You don't list your case, is it a cheapie with poor air flow? Maybe your motherboard isn't especially good for OCing? Etc..

In any case, I wouldn't worry about it too much. You got what you paid for both times, and if you run at stock speeds you're not voiding your warranty and risking shortening the life of the component for trivial gains in performance on cards that are already at the top of the heap in performance.

IMO OCing isn't worth it unless you can get some substantial gains, and if you notice in many reviews the OCd part doesn't perform quite as well as the part they're trying to make it emulate anyway?

 

[Acanthus]

What power supply?

 

[Rebel7254]

Well, for some reason I thought my PSU was listed in my specs. Srrrrrry. It's an Antec Truepower 430w. Here's a link to my case....got it around Christmas last year. I'm not using the 350w PSU it came with. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=11-129-122&DEPA=1. I have two 120mm fans in it (there's only two places to put fans in the case). I guess that's not enough for this room.

And yes, I understand the concept that the card is only obligated to work at stock speeds. However, in the VAST majority of reviews for both the Hercules 9700 Pro I got in 2002 and this eVga Geforce 6800GT, the reviewers were able to o/c well beyond what I was able to get.....especially the cores.

If you like to use AA and AF in high resolutions like I do, overclocking can give you some nice gains. When the difference is between like 50 and 60 fps, that extra 10 fps can be pretty "substantial" to you (I assume many here would agree that 60 fps is noticably smoother than 50 fps). If I never used AA or AF you're right....overclocking would be a total waste of time because there's no point in getting 120 fps when you're already getting 110 fps.

I don't even think I've found a review where the eVga 6800GT didn't hit safely hit ultra speeds on the stock cooling. There are quite of bit of them out there, too... And if you actually looked up the reviews you'd notice, since the only difference between the 6800GT and 6800U is stock clock speeds, the GT performs just the same as the Ultra when overclocked to Ultra spec.

NV Silencer (VGA silencer) 5 is supposed to be readliy available soon. I may get one of those if it's no more than $50.

btw, my mobo overclocks my CPU and RAM just fine. 400 MHz overclock on stock cooling for the proc, (229 fsb). But it may be that it isn't good for overclocking in the AGP slot. Who knows....

 

[413xram]

Make sure your heatsink is making proper contact with GPU. You should insure that proper contact is in place in order to allow proper heat transfer. That is a definite must for any sort of overclocking. Rollo also brings up a good point......that the card meets the factory specs. Some GPUs will not OC as well as others no matter what kind of cooling you use.

 

[nitromullet]

A few notes about your rig and other things to consider:

CPU: Intel Pentium4 Canterwood 3000MHz

There is no such thing. The Canterwood is a chipset, not a CPU. You probably mean P4 3.0 Northwood.

Motherboard: ASUS P4P800

The P4P800 series are Springdale chipset boards, not Canterwood.

I also have a P4P800 (Deluxe) and have dabbled in overclocking. When I had a P4 2.6, I OC'ed it to 3.4 with a 3:2 multiplier, so the RAM was running at stock speeds. I got decent results but had sound card issues . I noticed that when I upgraded to an actual P4 3.4, my 3DMark scores dropped a little from the 2.6 OC'ed at 3.4. My reasoning for this is that the PCI/AGP lock is not working properly so the video card and sound card was also getting overclocked along with the FSB. You might want to try either OC'ing the video card with your FSB at stock speeds to see if it makes a difference or see if you can determine the speed your AGP bus is running at before you procede.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: Rollo
You are apparently unfamiliar with the concepts "it only has to run at advertised spec" and "YMMV".

No JOKE! I don't understand all these morons these days who get mad because their card doesn't match the overclocks they've seen on other sites around the net.

Guess what folks: When you hand the dough over the merchant, you are saying "I will give you X dollars for a card that runs at Y speeds." The merchant is saying "I will give you a card that runs at Y speeds for X dollars."

That's IT. That is the entirety of your relationship. If your card doesn't overclock like a beast, tough sh*t. You didn't pay for it, so you have no right to it and you aren't owed it. Now here's a quarter....

 

[Rebel7254]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
A few notes about your rig and other things to consider:

CPU: Intel Pentium4 Canterwood 3000MHz

There is no such thing. The Canterwood is a chipset, not a CPU. You probably mean P4 3.0 Northwood.

Motherboard: ASUS P4P800

The P4P800 series are Springdale chipset boards, not Canterwood.

I also have a P4P800 (Deluxe) and have dabbled in overclocking. When I had a P4 2.6, I OC'ed it to 3.4 with a 3:2 multiplier, so the RAM was running at stock speeds. I got decent results but had sound card issues . I noticed that when I upgraded to an actual P4 3.4, my 3DMark scores dropped a little from the 2.6 OC'ed at 3.4. My reasoning for this is that the PCI/AGP lock is not working properly so the video card and sound card was also getting overclocked along with the FSB. You might want to try either OC'ing the video card with your FSB at stock speeds to see if it makes a difference or see if you can determine the speed your AGP bus is running at before you procede.

Yeah, that does kind of make me look like a noob doesn't it lol. Back when I first got my CPU I thought the c in 3.0c stood for Canterwood. I just never paid attention and updated my specs. I've learned a lot since then about hardware in general. I know my P4P800 is the 865PE chipset which is Springdale, as opposed to the P4C800 with the 875 chipset which is the Canterwood.

I know what you're saying about the mobo trying to o/c my sound and cpu as I o/c the graphics card. If you leave the FSB at stock (200Mhz) it does not lock the PCI/AGP buses and that would be happening. However, my FSB is at 201 Mhz, and that locks the PCI/AGP bus speeds. I checked it with Clockgen. So thank you for your time and the suggestion, but that's not the problem.

 

[Big Lar]

Hows your +5 and 12v rail? It really sounds like a power issue to me. May be that the bios of the card could use some updating, as it does seem that quite a few cards do much better with a hacked bios.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
A few notes about your rig and other things to consider:

CPU: Intel Pentium4 Canterwood 3000MHz

There is no such thing. The Canterwood is a chipset, not a CPU. You probably mean P4 3.0 Northwood.

Motherboard: ASUS P4P800

The P4P800 series are Springdale chipset boards, not Canterwood.

I also have a P4P800 (Deluxe) and have dabbled in overclocking. When I had a P4 2.6, I OC'ed it to 3.4 with a 3:2 multiplier, so the RAM was running at stock speeds. I got decent results but had sound card issues . I noticed that when I upgraded to an actual P4 3.4, my 3DMark scores dropped a little from the 2.6 OC'ed at 3.4. My reasoning for this is that the PCI/AGP lock is not working properly so the video card and sound card was also getting overclocked along with the FSB. You might want to try either OC'ing the video card with your FSB at stock speeds to see if it makes a difference or see if you can determine the speed your AGP bus is running at before you procede.

The performance incease of the 2.6@3.4 over the 3.4 @ stock was due to the dramatically increased FSB.

 

[thejackal1]

i got my evga gt at 400/1.1 on my 300w Antec.

 

[Rebel7254]

Originally posted by: thejackal1
i got my evga gt at 400/1.1 on my 300w Antec.

Yeah, pretty much everyone I've heard of gets their eVga GT to Ultra speeds......excect for me.

My temps for the GPU read 57 C at idle and ambient temp is 40 C. Do those temps sound ok?

 

[thejackal1]

Originally posted by: Rebel7254

Originally posted by: thejackal1
i got my evga gt at 400/1.1 on my 300w Antec.

Yeah, pretty much everyone I've heard of gets their eVga GT to Ultra speeds......excect for me.

My temps for the GPU read 57 C at idle and ambient temp is 40 C. Do those temps sound ok?

My GT temps read at 57 C at idle and 37 C ambient.

 

[Big Lar]

Originally posted by: Rebel7254

Originally posted by: thejackal1
i got my evga gt at 400/1.1 on my 300w Antec.

Yeah, pretty much everyone I've heard of gets their eVga GT to Ultra speeds......excect for me.

My temps for the GPU read 57 C at idle and ambient temp is 40 C. Do those temps sound ok?

I'm not sure how your Core temp is, as I water cool, but your Ambient temp seems a bit high.

 

[Rebel7254]

Well let's say I got an Arctic NV Silencer 5. Would that help my cause any? Or is my ambient / case temps so high it doesn't matter....

 

[CP5670]

I get about 63C idle, 77C maximum under load and 47C ambient on a BFG 6800GT card with that new cooler. These temperatures are with the BFG stock speeds and they seem high considering what others here are getting. The ambient looks particularly hot; I have a side fan right next to the card that is currently off (had to disconnect it and some other things from the psu to run the card stably), so will it make any significant difference to have that on? The room can get a bit stuffy and the BFG cooler's effectiveness is debatable, so that might also be contributing.

I never tried any overclocking apart from trying out the coolbits autodetector (which gave 385/1030) since my current power supply barely runs the card at the stock speed. I would like to get the 400/1100 speed out of this but am wondering if a new power supply is the only thing that will be needed.

I used Deus Ex 2 and Rivatuner to get the load reading; DX2's incredibly sluggish engine is perversely good for testing this sort of thing, as the game can get choppy in places even on 10x7 without any AA/AF. Most other games I tried maxed out at 71 or so though.

 

[Rebel7254]

Originally posted by: CP5670
I get about 63C idle, 77C maximum under load and 47C ambient on a BFG 6800GT card with that new cooler.

The NV Silencer 5? I'm definitely not getting one if it doesn't help more than that then.

 

[Childs]

Originally posted by: Rebel7254
I can't even get the core farther than 370 MHz without it failing the internal test or whatever that it says you must run before you apply the overclock (coolbits). The memory tests fine at 1.1 GHz though, haven't tried to go any higher or test it in any 3d apps. My case temperature is 37 C, which I know isn't too cool but it's because the cooling in the room I am in isn't very good. Is that my problem?

I'm just disappointed. Everywhere I look ppl with 6800 GT's getting to Ultra speeds (400/1100) using stock cooling without any problems whatsoever, many of them going beyond those speeds. My last graphics card, a Hercules R9700 Pro, was worthless for overclocking as well. I can't believe I got two crappy cards in a row.......well I can't say crappy because they work flawlessly at stock speeds. But God forbid if you wanna do a little overclocking. :|

Could it be that the internal test is wrong, or is it a sure thing that if it doesn't pass that test that it won't be stable? I just can't believe I ended up with another p.o.s. overclocker.

Check out the link to my system specs in my sig.

Why not return your card and get another one? You didnt break it, so take it back (if youre within the return period) or exchange it for another one. IF the new one still has problems then perhaps you should look at other components.

And as others self righteously stated, OCing is a YMMV deal at best. I know you feel like you got screwed when the majority of GTs seem to hit Ultra speeds, but you did get what you paid for. Buying the new Silencer in hopes of correcting the situation is a bad way to go, cause theres no guarantee cooling is the issue, and it drives up your costs on the card.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: Rebel7254

Originally posted by: CP5670
I get about 63C idle, 77C maximum under load and 47C ambient on a BFG 6800GT card with that new cooler.

The NV Silencer 5? I'm definitely not getting one if it doesn't help more than that then.

No I mean the BFG cooler, the one with two blue LED fans and a heatpipe.

 

[aldamon]

My eVGA wouldn't overclock very well either. The solution is to use a 1.5V BIOS:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=388256&postcount=22

I get 407 on the core with 1.5V. I got 370 with the stock 1.4V.

A 1.6V BIOS is also available in that thread, but I wouldn't suggest using 1.6V without additional cooling. There is also software in that thread that you can use to modifiy your own BIOS. The one I linked to is the BFG 6800 GT OC BIOS, but it works fine on the eVGA.

Oh, and one more thing. You have to understand that eVGA offers the FULL 6800 line, all the way up to the Ultra Extreme. That means the cores are probably a little more speed binned than say XFX cards.

 

[Genx87]

Dont feel bad mine wont go over 380. Right now it is running at stock and to be honest the thing runs everything silky smooth with maxed sliders @ 1600X1200 in farcry + BF:V.

Until a game makes me get out of 1600X1200. Ill just keep it at stock.

 

[Rebel7254]

Originally posted by: aldamon
My eVGA wouldn't overclock very well either. The solution is to use a 1.5V BIOS:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=388256&postcount=22

I get 407 on the core with 1.5V. I got 370 with the stock 1.4V.

A 1.6V BIOS is also available in that thread, but I wouldn't suggest using 1.6V without additional cooling. There is also software in that thread that you can use to modifiy your own BIOS. The one I linked to is the BFG 6800 GT OC BIOS, but it works fine on the eVGA.

Oh, and one more thing. You have to understand that eVGA offers the FULL 6800 line, all the way up to the Ultra Extreme. That means the cores are probably a little more speed binned than say XFX cards.

I recommend you don't use this bios unless you have very good cooling as in a waterblock, modified HSF or in my case A/C cooled case.

That's from the post your link goes to. I definitely don't have that kind of cooling...