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**This thread is aimed at NVidia cards with the emphasis on the 6800 series, my own experience is with a 6800U but most of the problems/fixes are generic.**
Ok theres millions of posters in ere on about low scores and poor gaming results, I posted this last under a silly name that no one looked at it so here it is again.
Ok
Download the following components at guru3d.com
For Nvida:
NVHardpage
Forceware coolbits
Latest Forceware drivers (currently the best on 6800's seem to be the 66.81's)
ADVANCED USERS
OmniExremeEditFX (Bios editor not the best but does the job)
For ATi see This excellent thread by David
With 6800 cards
Freezes or pauses (especially on 6800GT/U/NU
Ensure 2d/3d clock is the same, fastwrites are off in AGP settings (requires reset, can also be done in some Bios'), and that your bios is the latest version from your manufacturer.
Graphics Card Flashing Guide
Download this Bios pack created by our very own noxis (i should stress this is a bios pack for 6800U's! They could seriously damage any other card! However you may get the 4001100.rom onto a GT fine flashing it to ULTRA)
This pack contains NVflash (the utility needed to flash the bios firmware (the onboard info) and 3 bios versions-
XFXbios.rom - stock bios (fine on any ULTRA ive used it on)
4501200.rom - Voltmodded to allow 450mhz clock and 1200 mem clock, never borked a card that ive heard but causes artifacts on some, use with SOME caution
4001100.rom - Working basic ULTRA bios use if you are afraid...mwwhahahah
To flash, First uninstall your GC drivers with add/remove programs, then drivercleaner which can be found here at driver heaven
1)create boot disk (usually right click A: drive and go to format, then check the box "create startup (or) boot disk")
2) Copy files in the pack to the A: drive, insert disk and reset. (make sure to set your bios to boot from floppy FIRST!, usually in 'advanced CMOS settings, or similar)
3) at DOS prompt type---
where in the speechmarks you type the name of the bios you want to flash inc the dot rom (BUT NO SPEECHMARKS).
Low 3Dmarks, FPS etc on any card
1) Ensure you removed all drivers before installing the current ones (even advisable when updating a driver for the same card), use Driver Cleaner to make sure its done right,
2) next ensure that you Dirct X is the newest version, currently v.9c is available from Microsoft
3)Check your motherboard manufacturers website for Updated chipset drivers.
4) If no improvement yet then the only option may be a reformat, but befor this, if using WinXP try deleting your old winXP installation using the winXP CD to boot (set bios to boot from CD) and use the installation program to remove the old installation and install a fresh copy, do not if possible update to SP2 as there are known performance issues with some setups, so test with basic SP1 XP first (it is not advisable to go on the internet without SP2 unless you first install Extensive security software, a free firewall is available here thanks to ZoneLabs
5) If all else fails then Backup and wipe the lot, start afresh.
If you are getting distortion or artifacts/sparklies
Artifacts look like odd triangles or mishapen/distorted textures
Sparklies are... well sparkly, youll know it when you see it
If you get sparklies (little sparkly dots or squares) Lower your core!
If you get artifacts (dark/distorted triangles) Lower your memory!
These issues are nearly always due to damaged hardware or too much overclocking, it amazes me that people still come in and ask about these because if you dont know what they are you should not be fiddling with clockspeeds!!
Ok what to do,
1) If they are being displayed during POST/Startup, then get the reciept out cos youre cards a goner (it may be possible to correct with a bios flash but it is not worth it because you will lose your warranty, the same goes for poorly seated heatsinks)
2) STOP OVERCLOCKING!!!! (for now
)
3) check your temps, most drivers for newer cards include a temperature monitor available in the bios options. on 6800 cards around 50idle on stock cooling is ok. If its fine goto 6 if not goto step 4
4) Check your GFX card fan is working, I stick my finger in it but i dont advocate this, look dont touch
, if all is spinning then remove the GFX card and tighten the screws CAREFULLY that attach the heatsinks to the board (PCB). If this fixes it goto 6 if not goto 5
5)You have two choices, send it back, or take your life (and wallet) in your hands and remove the heatsink and clean off all thermal compound/pads (gently, i use ethanol wipes but im not sure what is the safest, you can buy some citrus based cleaner here). Reapply the heatsink, or go all out and buy an Arctic cooler unit, but ensure you purchase the correct model for your card!!! these are available right here at OCUK
for around £15
You may also want to pick up some Artctic silver 5 (known on here as AS5 surprisingly) which you can buy here
Clean the chip, apply compound, replace/install heatsink.
6)It is advisable that you have sufficient airflow in your case, make sure you have at LEAST 1 case fan and if possible 2 or more to stop these issues from arising in marathon sessions
7)start overclocking again because you know you want too
Tearing
What is it? This IS NOT a GC related issue, its a monitor related issue, it occurs mostly when turning your POV laterally (horizontally) in First-person games.
What does it look like? You know when the bottom and top halves of a room have different peices of wallpaper and no border? and the patterns dont match up? kinda like that but moving.... ok poor analogy, its like the image on your screen is being dragged in different directions, or that one part is taking longer to catch up to where your looking, this causes the screen to 'tear'.
How do i know thats what i have? Find a long peice of corridor or whatever in your game and hold forward without turning, if its lag free then you have tearing. (If you get tearing you almost certainly wont have lag)
Why does it happen? This occurs as a result of you being too damn stigy on your monitor and too damn extravagent on your GC, if the graphics card is churning out 140fps and your monitor refreshes at 60fps or 75fps (yes i know its Hz but in lamens it means the same) then there is a problem in that it is not displaying all the frames, whichever way it happens its what causes tearing.
How to fix Simple, buy a good monitor with 120hz or higher refresh rate..............
Ok so you dont HAVE to but i do reccommend it, the second method is to go into your graphics options(right click the desktop and click NVidia display/settings) Click the performance and quality tab, In the center is a scroll box with 'Anti-alaising' 'anistropic Filtering' and 'vertical sync'
Click VERTICAL SYNC, Uncheck the box that says application controlled, slide the slider to ON. This synchronises max framerate to FPS, effectively limiting you to 60fps on a 60hz monitor, removing tearing. However this can cause lag because if you loose 60FPS at any point it can jump between 30 and 60 a lot which gives the appearance of slowdown.
FUN FIX! If your using high end GC's with older games just slap some Anti-ailaising and Anistropic filtering on! This may be enough to bring the 'natural' fps down to 60 ish, either turn it on in-game, or use the property box where you turned vertical sync on!
OVERCLOCKING!
Ok, this is the bit you all wanna do right....Well remember that you COULD kill your card, PSU or perhaps more if the PSU is dodgy so dont blame me! But on the positive side i am going to try to advise safely and only 1 in a million of you could **** this up!
First you need a few components so i hope youve got the broadband wound up cos on 56k some of these killed me! (3DMARK05 took me 2 days!!!!!)
First, if youve just skipped here get these files
Coolbits
Latest drivers (any of the 66.xx series are ok tho)
downloadat GURU3D
Also get 3DMark 01, 03 &05 (05 is not totally necessary, but as it is an example of newer technologies it is wise to test anyoverclocking in 05 to minimise problems with newer games.) Get these from either the link above or from futuremark
Right now to get your hands dirty! If you dont have any extra cooling in your case then DEFINATELY go out and buy as many fans as you can because the lower the case temp the better the air going to the card will be and the better the overclock will be!!
Also if you dont know what brand your PSU is then id be tempted to go out and get a good one because overclocking my card and fiddling with voltages took out 3 bog-standard PSU's and the third one destroyed my mobo and caused my poor old 2.8prescott to become the equivalent of a 800mhz Cyrix, if you remember those then you know what i mean, if you dont then just say its borked! So Please! Please! Please! make sure your PSU is decent, dont go mad unless you run crazy things off your computer, like massive RAID arrays and such, WC or a phase changer(but if you had that kit you wouldnt need me!).
So now youve got the juice and a cool case then what else? Go for an arctic cooler, really, volts dont kill bits, frequencies dont kill bits, twiddling dont kill bits! HEAT KILLS BITS!!!!!! So pick one up right here at OCUK for just under £15, come on you spend a few ton on a gfx card and cant spend £15 on this??? For more details see my mini-guide (point 5 onward in the 'if you get artifacts bit')
Right now your all frosty inside, time to right click the desktop and click the hallowed 'clockfrequencies' tab in the driver properties sidebar (its only there once youve activated coolbits)
Now youll see 2 sliders, both of which will be greyed out, one for Core Clockspeed (the speed the processor is run at) and one for memory (the sum total of the memory frequency, ie div by 2 for mem speed). Above the sliders you'll see a dot box, check it to manual overclock, a box pops up basically absolving nvidia of any responsibility should you fry the card, yourself or any hardware by overclocking, just scroll to the bottom and click accept.
NOTE: If you havent already Benchmarked your cards at stock (normal) speeds then now would be a good time to do so, keep a note of the results for 3D01/03 &05
The slider should now have become available, so depending on your card start bumping it up, id say start with 25mhz on the core clock and 50 on the memory, youll probly have to click test changes but first adjust the 2D sliders to the same levels (use the dropdown box to see the 2D sliders), then click test settings on each of the 2d & 3D clock pages. If all go well get testing!
Run The 3Dmarks and make a note of the change (with any luck it should be an increase!) But be sure to note any corruption, freezing, artifacts or sparklies, if you get these then it is not a valid overclock because you cannot really play games (except older ones) with these problems, plus it suggests your pushin your hardware too hard.
REMEMBER! Sparklies are a core problem (usually) and Artifacts are a memory problem, so if you see any you only need to downclock the one thats causing it!
Ive got more to add to this section but there are some more pressing matters for me to attend, i will add to it later.
Thats all i can be bothered to do for now, feel free to add bits and lets try and make it a sticky!!
Code:
[size=4]Update Box--- New 67.20's apparently have some HL2 optimisations,
as yet uncertain of the improvments[URL=http://downloads.guru3d.com/downloadget.php?id=915&file=4&evp=6a6e889f04d0cf20ef6d883e33395448]Download[/url]
I find these well fast! 66.93's![URl=http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93]click here[/url]
Most stable current drivers 66.81's click [url=http://download.guru3d.com/detonator/]here[/url] to download[/size]Ok theres millions of posters in ere on about low scores and poor gaming results, I posted this last under a silly name that no one looked at it so here it is again.
Ok
Download the following components at guru3d.com
For Nvida:
NVHardpage
Forceware coolbits
Latest Forceware drivers (currently the best on 6800's seem to be the 66.81's)
ADVANCED USERS
OmniExremeEditFX (Bios editor not the best but does the job)
For ATi see This excellent thread by David
With 6800 cards
Freezes or pauses (especially on 6800GT/U/NU
Ensure 2d/3d clock is the same, fastwrites are off in AGP settings (requires reset, can also be done in some Bios'), and that your bios is the latest version from your manufacturer.
Graphics Card Flashing Guide
Download this Bios pack created by our very own noxis (i should stress this is a bios pack for 6800U's! They could seriously damage any other card! However you may get the 4001100.rom onto a GT fine flashing it to ULTRA)
This pack contains NVflash (the utility needed to flash the bios firmware (the onboard info) and 3 bios versions-
XFXbios.rom - stock bios (fine on any ULTRA ive used it on)
4501200.rom - Voltmodded to allow 450mhz clock and 1200 mem clock, never borked a card that ive heard but causes artifacts on some, use with SOME caution
4001100.rom - Working basic ULTRA bios use if you are afraid...mwwhahahah
To flash, First uninstall your GC drivers with add/remove programs, then drivercleaner which can be found here at driver heaven
1)create boot disk (usually right click A: drive and go to format, then check the box "create startup (or) boot disk")
2) Copy files in the pack to the A: drive, insert disk and reset. (make sure to set your bios to boot from floppy FIRST!, usually in 'advanced CMOS settings, or similar)
3) at DOS prompt type---
Code:
NVFLASH -5 -6 "xxxxx.rom"where in the speechmarks you type the name of the bios you want to flash inc the dot rom (BUT NO SPEECHMARKS).
Low 3Dmarks, FPS etc on any card
1) Ensure you removed all drivers before installing the current ones (even advisable when updating a driver for the same card), use Driver Cleaner to make sure its done right,
2) next ensure that you Dirct X is the newest version, currently v.9c is available from Microsoft
3)Check your motherboard manufacturers website for Updated chipset drivers.
4) If no improvement yet then the only option may be a reformat, but befor this, if using WinXP try deleting your old winXP installation using the winXP CD to boot (set bios to boot from CD) and use the installation program to remove the old installation and install a fresh copy, do not if possible update to SP2 as there are known performance issues with some setups, so test with basic SP1 XP first (it is not advisable to go on the internet without SP2 unless you first install Extensive security software, a free firewall is available here thanks to ZoneLabs
5) If all else fails then Backup and wipe the lot, start afresh.
If you are getting distortion or artifacts/sparklies
Artifacts look like odd triangles or mishapen/distorted textures
Sparklies are... well sparkly, youll know it when you see it
If you get sparklies (little sparkly dots or squares) Lower your core!
If you get artifacts (dark/distorted triangles) Lower your memory!
These issues are nearly always due to damaged hardware or too much overclocking, it amazes me that people still come in and ask about these because if you dont know what they are you should not be fiddling with clockspeeds!!
Ok what to do,
1) If they are being displayed during POST/Startup, then get the reciept out cos youre cards a goner (it may be possible to correct with a bios flash but it is not worth it because you will lose your warranty, the same goes for poorly seated heatsinks)
2) STOP OVERCLOCKING!!!! (for now
)3) check your temps, most drivers for newer cards include a temperature monitor available in the bios options. on 6800 cards around 50idle on stock cooling is ok. If its fine goto 6 if not goto step 4
4) Check your GFX card fan is working, I stick my finger in it but i dont advocate this, look dont touch
, if all is spinning then remove the GFX card and tighten the screws CAREFULLY that attach the heatsinks to the board (PCB). If this fixes it goto 6 if not goto 55)You have two choices, send it back, or take your life (and wallet) in your hands and remove the heatsink and clean off all thermal compound/pads (gently, i use ethanol wipes but im not sure what is the safest, you can buy some citrus based cleaner here). Reapply the heatsink, or go all out and buy an Arctic cooler unit, but ensure you purchase the correct model for your card!!! these are available right here at OCUK
for around £15
You may also want to pick up some Artctic silver 5 (known on here as AS5 surprisingly) which you can buy here
Clean the chip, apply compound, replace/install heatsink.
6)It is advisable that you have sufficient airflow in your case, make sure you have at LEAST 1 case fan and if possible 2 or more to stop these issues from arising in marathon sessions
7)start overclocking again because you know you want too
Tearing
What is it? This IS NOT a GC related issue, its a monitor related issue, it occurs mostly when turning your POV laterally (horizontally) in First-person games.
What does it look like? You know when the bottom and top halves of a room have different peices of wallpaper and no border? and the patterns dont match up? kinda like that but moving.... ok poor analogy, its like the image on your screen is being dragged in different directions, or that one part is taking longer to catch up to where your looking, this causes the screen to 'tear'.
How do i know thats what i have? Find a long peice of corridor or whatever in your game and hold forward without turning, if its lag free then you have tearing. (If you get tearing you almost certainly wont have lag)
Why does it happen? This occurs as a result of you being too damn stigy on your monitor and too damn extravagent on your GC, if the graphics card is churning out 140fps and your monitor refreshes at 60fps or 75fps (yes i know its Hz but in lamens it means the same) then there is a problem in that it is not displaying all the frames, whichever way it happens its what causes tearing.
How to fix Simple, buy a good monitor with 120hz or higher refresh rate..............
Ok so you dont HAVE to but i do reccommend it, the second method is to go into your graphics options(right click the desktop and click NVidia display/settings) Click the performance and quality tab, In the center is a scroll box with 'Anti-alaising' 'anistropic Filtering' and 'vertical sync'
Click VERTICAL SYNC, Uncheck the box that says application controlled, slide the slider to ON. This synchronises max framerate to FPS, effectively limiting you to 60fps on a 60hz monitor, removing tearing. However this can cause lag because if you loose 60FPS at any point it can jump between 30 and 60 a lot which gives the appearance of slowdown.
FUN FIX! If your using high end GC's with older games just slap some Anti-ailaising and Anistropic filtering on! This may be enough to bring the 'natural' fps down to 60 ish, either turn it on in-game, or use the property box where you turned vertical sync on!
OVERCLOCKING!
Ok, this is the bit you all wanna do right....Well remember that you COULD kill your card, PSU or perhaps more if the PSU is dodgy so dont blame me! But on the positive side i am going to try to advise safely and only 1 in a million of you could **** this up!
First you need a few components so i hope youve got the broadband wound up cos on 56k some of these killed me! (3DMARK05 took me 2 days!!!!!)
First, if youve just skipped here get these files
Coolbits
Latest drivers (any of the 66.xx series are ok tho)
downloadat GURU3D
Also get 3DMark 01, 03 &05 (05 is not totally necessary, but as it is an example of newer technologies it is wise to test anyoverclocking in 05 to minimise problems with newer games.) Get these from either the link above or from futuremark
Right now to get your hands dirty! If you dont have any extra cooling in your case then DEFINATELY go out and buy as many fans as you can because the lower the case temp the better the air going to the card will be and the better the overclock will be!!
Also if you dont know what brand your PSU is then id be tempted to go out and get a good one because overclocking my card and fiddling with voltages took out 3 bog-standard PSU's and the third one destroyed my mobo and caused my poor old 2.8prescott to become the equivalent of a 800mhz Cyrix, if you remember those then you know what i mean, if you dont then just say its borked! So Please! Please! Please! make sure your PSU is decent, dont go mad unless you run crazy things off your computer, like massive RAID arrays and such, WC or a phase changer(but if you had that kit you wouldnt need me!).
So now youve got the juice and a cool case then what else? Go for an arctic cooler, really, volts dont kill bits, frequencies dont kill bits, twiddling dont kill bits! HEAT KILLS BITS!!!!!! So pick one up right here at OCUK for just under £15, come on you spend a few ton on a gfx card and cant spend £15 on this??? For more details see my mini-guide (point 5 onward in the 'if you get artifacts bit')
Right now your all frosty inside, time to right click the desktop and click the hallowed 'clockfrequencies' tab in the driver properties sidebar (its only there once youve activated coolbits)
Now youll see 2 sliders, both of which will be greyed out, one for Core Clockspeed (the speed the processor is run at) and one for memory (the sum total of the memory frequency, ie div by 2 for mem speed). Above the sliders you'll see a dot box, check it to manual overclock, a box pops up basically absolving nvidia of any responsibility should you fry the card, yourself or any hardware by overclocking, just scroll to the bottom and click accept.
NOTE: If you havent already Benchmarked your cards at stock (normal) speeds then now would be a good time to do so, keep a note of the results for 3D01/03 &05
The slider should now have become available, so depending on your card start bumping it up, id say start with 25mhz on the core clock and 50 on the memory, youll probly have to click test changes but first adjust the 2D sliders to the same levels (use the dropdown box to see the 2D sliders), then click test settings on each of the 2d & 3D clock pages. If all go well get testing!
Run The 3Dmarks and make a note of the change (with any luck it should be an increase!) But be sure to note any corruption, freezing, artifacts or sparklies, if you get these then it is not a valid overclock because you cannot really play games (except older ones) with these problems, plus it suggests your pushin your hardware too hard.
REMEMBER! Sparklies are a core problem (usually) and Artifacts are a memory problem, so if you see any you only need to downclock the one thats causing it!
Ive got more to add to this section but there are some more pressing matters for me to attend, i will add to it later.
Thats all i can be bothered to do for now, feel free to add bits and lets try and make it a sticky!!
Last edited:
