Hey there guys, i'm an owner of an original geforce 6800 GTo. For the time it was a great priced card and overclocked a lot! But.. i decided SLI was in order as i needed a little more added to the games, so i've already found a matched pair on ebay. Got both for £118 which i've got to admit is a bloody great price, do you reckon its worth unlocking the pipes (some may be faulty) and overclocking or just overclocking. The card itself is a geforce 6800 ultra that didnt make it through the whole manufacturing process if you don't remember the card. Feedback would be great as i really need to see what i can do with this.
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Remember those Geforce 6800 GTo's?
- Thread starter Verbium
- Start date
I've got one of those sitting in a cupboard. A friend has too. When they first came out we did a lot of investigation and then testing of them. We posted a massive thread on here at the time. They are Ultras which has either failed the speed tests or some of the pipes were faulty. For example if I unlock my pipes then I get very slight artifacting. But mine clocks past Ultra speeds. My friends card is the opposite - his doesn't clock much but his pipes unlock fine.
They are not officially able to SLI and there was some confusion about this at the time because they clearly had an SLI slot. But we were able to get them running like this. However there was some slight artifacting. We have a theory about this. I suspect that the drivers for SLI assume the cards are identical (obviously) and as such they try to run with all the pipes unlocked. This would explain the very slight artifacting when in SLI - that would be due to my card which couldn't fully unlock.
So what I'm leading to is that, if my theory is correct, then you may be fine with a "matched pair" of cards if both can fully unlock without artifacting.
But I agree they were, and are, superb cards for their time and excellent value. In speed tests mine runs between the speed of a GT and Ultra (clocks past an Ultra but I don't unlock all the pipes). Yet it cost less than the GT at the time.
Bargaintastic!
I'm toying with the idea of selling my current 7800 GTX 512 Extreme and moving back to the GTO for a few months but if I decide against it I may well have to put it in the members market.
EDIT: Ah, reading your post again it seems you've already bought them - so do they run fine in SLI? I'd loved to have tried some more cards to prove my theory.
They are not officially able to SLI and there was some confusion about this at the time because they clearly had an SLI slot. But we were able to get them running like this. However there was some slight artifacting. We have a theory about this. I suspect that the drivers for SLI assume the cards are identical (obviously) and as such they try to run with all the pipes unlocked. This would explain the very slight artifacting when in SLI - that would be due to my card which couldn't fully unlock.
So what I'm leading to is that, if my theory is correct, then you may be fine with a "matched pair" of cards if both can fully unlock without artifacting.
But I agree they were, and are, superb cards for their time and excellent value. In speed tests mine runs between the speed of a GT and Ultra (clocks past an Ultra but I don't unlock all the pipes). Yet it cost less than the GT at the time.
Bargaintastic!
I'm toying with the idea of selling my current 7800 GTX 512 Extreme and moving back to the GTO for a few months but if I decide against it I may well have to put it in the members market.
EDIT: Ah, reading your post again it seems you've already bought them - so do they run fine in SLI? I'd loved to have tried some more cards to prove my theory.
thanks for the quick reply, well i've been talking to the seller and he got these cards from a different place but has had them in SLI for quite some time. So i guess the pipes unlock well, also if there are any problems then i have my one sat in my comp still.
If i can unlock the pipes etc and they work fine without being in SLI would you suggest flashing these to ultras? I know its a bit of a mission but i'm thinking that might fix some of the problems they had with SLI.
On another note, i've been toying with my PSU its a 430 watt enermax. Now on all the tests i've done i can just scrap SLI. Is it worth a try seeing if they work or just to get a new power supply to be on the safe side?
If i can unlock the pipes etc and they work fine without being in SLI would you suggest flashing these to ultras? I know its a bit of a mission but i'm thinking that might fix some of the problems they had with SLI.
On another note, i've been toying with my PSU its a 430 watt enermax. Now on all the tests i've done i can just scrap SLI. Is it worth a try seeing if they work or just to get a new power supply to be on the safe side?
Ah don't say that, sounds like i should have waited till everyone starts selling them again! Edit: Hey Hades i don't suppose you could find that post could you? I remember when i first got my card i just fiddled to get the best results, i couldn't find much details on the card.
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Either way i agree they are fantastic cards and you really can't go wrong when the performance is fantastic and they still run all the latest games perfectly fine. I'm off to uni in Sept after working for a year, i wanted to do a full system upgrade but i simply don't have the money.
The idea of buying a new graphics card now i think is infeasible as DX10 is around the corner and why change them you've got a card that runs everything perfectly fine. Apart from bargins like these of course!
The idea of buying a new graphics card now i think is infeasible as DX10 is around the corner and why change them you've got a card that runs everything perfectly fine. Apart from bargins like these of course!
Mr Sniper said:
Unfortunately it will have been deleted by OcUK by now. It was a long time ago (over a year) and they archive stuff. I think you just need something like Riva Tuner to unlock them.
No I wouldn't recommend flashing to an Ultra in case one of the cards can't run at that speed. This is what I would do:
1) Put one card in your machine.
2) See how far it will clock (using Coolbits or Riva Tuner).
3) Set the speed back to normal.
4) Take the card out and replace with the second one.
5) See how far it will clock.
This will give you the maximum speed you could run in SLI.
6) Set the speed back to normal and use Riva Tuner to unlock the extra pipes. Check for artifacting in something like Doom3 timedemo. Then relock the pipes.
7) Take the card out, put the other one back in and unlock the pipes again. Check for artifacting and then re-lock.
This will test whether the cards can unlock without artifacting.
8) Put both cards back in, with locked pipes, at stock speed. Check for artifacting.
9) See how far the SLI will overclock. It should match the lowest speed above.
I can't recall if you can unlock the pipes and also run in SLI. But you probably can if you unlock the pipes individually and then put back into SLI.
Mr Sniper said:
Try the 430 first. My friend only had a 350w or 400w (can't remember) and it worked (that amazed me frankly as I'd upgraded to a 520w just in case!).
EDIT: I just did a quick search on Google and there seemed to be a some mention of peopel able to SLI these. So maybe later drivers made it easier. Anyway it looks pretty simple now and a bargain SLI setup!
EDIT: Found some specs:
Specifications:
- 350MHz Core Engine Clock speed
- 256MB 900MHz high speed DDR3 memory
- Superscalar 12-Pipe GPU Architecture
- CineFX 3.0 Engine
- The Industry's First On-Chip Video Processor
- UltraShadow II Technology
- 64-Bit Texture Filtering and Blending
- Intellisample 3.0 Technology
- Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
- nView Multi-Display Technology
- Digital Vibrance Control 3.0
- High-Speed GDDR3 Memory Interface
- 256-Bit Memory Interface with Advanced Memory Control
- 128-Bit Studio-Precision Computation
- Full-Speed 32-Bit Color Precision
- Advanced Adaptive De-Interlacing
- Video Scaling and Filtering
- Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
- 0.13 Micron Process Technology
- PCI-E–SIG certified
If I recall they had 12 pipes instead of 16 and 5 shaders instead of 6. These are definitely unlockable but the reviews had mixed experiences with artifacting as also found in my tests.
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Thanks for the tip, surprised about the 350w power supply!
I know my current card can unlock to 16p 6s and it can overclock to ultra speeds. Although it won't go over those speeds like that, but in 12p 5s it'll go to 415mhz and 1.05 mem stable.
I guess its a wait and see how these cards compare, if one doesn't work i now have 3 to play with then just sell on the one thats the worst.
I was explaining these cards to a few people at work and they were shocked at how cheap they were going for! I'll keep the post updated with progress
Edit: Edits everywhere! Lol, can have a few links if you still have them? From experience with these cards i think they do run smoother in 12 5 config aswell, 16 6 never seemed to be smooth within gameplay.
I know my current card can unlock to 16p 6s and it can overclock to ultra speeds. Although it won't go over those speeds like that, but in 12p 5s it'll go to 415mhz and 1.05 mem stable.
I guess its a wait and see how these cards compare, if one doesn't work i now have 3 to play with then just sell on the one thats the worst.
I was explaining these cards to a few people at work and they were shocked at how cheap they were going for! I'll keep the post updated with progress
Edit: Edits everywhere! Lol, can have a few links if you still have them? From experience with these cards i think they do run smoother in 12 5 config aswell, 16 6 never seemed to be smooth within gameplay.
Caporegime
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- 21 Jun 2006
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£118 you should have just bought an x1800xt for a little more
Not the biggest fan of ATI atm, they main uses i want from SLI is actually to run stable and with all the added extras like AA. As a pair they will sell back quite well too, unless i keep them for an older system. Even then you don't find many people saying they have two systems and the old one has SLI aswell lol.
They shouldn't run ok on a 350w PSU but they did on his. Having said that they were only in ther for a couple of days so there may be stability problems which weren't noticed. But it's worth a try first before getting a new PSU.
Another good thing about these cards is that they won't devalue as much as the X1800 when DX10 comes out. They are already old cards. I have quite a soft spot for these cards. Obviously they cam't compare to a modern setup, particularly if SLI doesn't work properly, but I had a lot of fun tweaking them.
Another good thing about these cards is that they won't devalue as much as the X1800 when DX10 comes out. They are already old cards. I have quite a soft spot for these cards. Obviously they cam't compare to a modern setup, particularly if SLI doesn't work properly, but I had a lot of fun tweaking them.