Summary of Video Card Modding Possibilities

[iamtrout]

So we have the 6600, 6600GT, 6800NU, 6800GT, and 6800Ultra.

Is there a way to unlock the 4 dormant pipelines in the 6800NU to make it 16 pipelines total like the 6800GT? Then could you overclock it to 6800Ultra speeds, effectively saving $200?

Are there such possibilities with the 6600 and 6600GT?

 

[jpeyton]

You can unlock 6800NU with Rivatuner if your card allows it. You can certainly overclock the core, but the memory needs to be GDDR3 to overclock to 1.1GHz (many NU have GDDR1).

 

[Avalon]

Not with the 6600 series cards. Those are a different core. The 6800NU can be softmodded, though, with rivatuner. It simply unmasks locked pipelines and the vertext shader unit. I doubt you'd get it to clock anywhere near an ultra, though. Even a BFG OC would have trouble, and that card is stock at 350/700. The DDR1 memory on that card will not reach 1100mhz. Most can generally get to 800mhz, and I've seen a few go higher. The core, on the other hand, I have seen reach 400, but generally 6800NUs will do about 375. I'm not sure how good the BFG cooler is. I'd imagine many would opt to get their own HSF cooler if they were to be overclocking like that.