** The Official 8800GT 512/256mb Review/Overclocking Thread **

[willhub]

Just want to post, I have now flashed my 8800GT with the modded bios from over at Xtremesystems and I can say there is an improvement, after 5 mins in ATi tool I got no artifacts and was at 700 core whilst before at 700 I was getting artifacts at anything over 680.

Will post back later with some more results


**EDIT** After 5 mins of ATi tool @ 710Mhz no artifacts, thats a 30Mhz clock increase so far with this Bios .

**EDIT2** 720Mhz no artifacts after 5 mins, thats 40Mhz increase so far.

 

[Neal]

**EDIT** After 5 mins of ATi tool @ 710Mhz no artifacts, thats a 30Mhz clock increase so far with this Bios .

**EDIT2** 720Mhz no artifacts after 5 mins, thats 40Mhz increase so far.

cool cool, hope you can get 750 stable like mine, i just threw mine in at 750 and crossed my fingers lol...

771 drivers drop out of crysis after 10 mins, and 169.09 will not take any clock and run 3d-06

rolling back now to .02

neal

 

[willhub]

cool cool, hope you can get 750 stable like mine, i just threw mine in at 750 and crossed my fingers lol...

771 drivers drop out of crysis after 10 mins, and 169.09 will not take any clock and run 3d-06

rolling back now to .02

neal

750 I get yellow dots but it says no errors.

Maxing out at 740-745 here. still 60-65Mhz improvement from 680 which was my previouse max!! , I'm happy with that

Can you put your clocks at 750Mhz then do scan for artifacts in ATi tool plz?

So here it is:

Standard Bios:

680/1750/1050 MAX

Modded Bios:

745/1800/1050 MAX

 

[markyb]

Interesting, May try the Bios mod.

Had mine clocked at 720/2110/1800 whist I was playing TF2 earlier this evening which resulted in TF not responding after 20-25 minutes of playing. The fan was wacked on 60%. I could ALT+TAB Back to the desktop, I had the side of the case off and touched the card which was burning hot... Time to replace the cooler

 

[willhub]

I dont think its the cooler thats limiting overclocks, I had mine at 100% and it was burning hot then to see it was only about 76 degrees.

 

[ArchAnGeL]

I found that the ati tool test is not severe enough. Yes it heats the card up and you might pass 3d06 but try playing crysis.

I had my core up to 750 with no ati tool artifacts. Tried to run the gpu benchmark in crysis and it locked up.

I settled at 714 core / 1850 shaders / 1950 mem which was fine for 3d06, ati tool and crysis gpu benchmark. However when I try to play crysis it locks.

At stock I have no problems with crysis.

I'm going to try and get a stable crysis overclock tonight before flashing the bios to see if things improve.

Watercooled on seperate gfx loop with mcw60 with single rad - max temp 41 deg with a low fan.

card is msi oc version 660/1650/1900 (I think from memory)

 

[krooton]

I'm strapping an S1 and Nexus fan to my Inno3D GT tonight, what's the general consensus on the best Nvidia drivers to use at the moment?

 

[willhub]

I found that the ati tool test is not severe enough. Yes it heats the card up and you might pass 3d06 but try playing crysis.

I had my core up to 750 with no ati tool artifacts. Tried to run the gpu benchmark in crysis and it locked up.

I settled at 714 core / 1850 shaders / 1950 mem which was fine for 3d06, ati tool and crysis gpu benchmark. However when I try to play crysis it locks.

At stock I have no problems with crysis.

I'm going to try and get a stable crysis overclock tonight before flashing the bios to see if things improve.

Watercooled on seperate gfx loop with mcw60 with single rad - max temp 41 deg with a low fan.

card is msi oc version 660/1650/1900 (I think from memory)

At 745/1800/1000 I pased 3DM06 and raised my score to 13186 or something around there give or take 10, thought it would be stable if it passed 3DM06, will try Crysis tonight.

 

[Neal]

750 I get yellow dots but it says no errors.

Can you put your clocks at 750Mhz then do scan for artifacts in ATi tool plz?

well 750 was rock solid stable playing COD4 and Crysis demo no issues what so ever using 169.02 but 169.04 caused crash to desktop. but using ati tool i get artifacts at anything over 738mhz...

I shouldn't have assumed it was ok @ 750 lol i'll eat my hat.... *salt anyone?*

738 is fine for me tbh, i think everyday use will be around the 700 mhz mark.

 

[willhub]

well 750 was rock solid stable playing COD4 and Crysis demo no issues what so ever using 169.02 but 169.04 caused crash to desktop. but using ati tool i get artifacts at anything over 738mhz...

I shouldn't have assumed it was ok @ 750 lol i'll eat my hat.... *salt anyone?*

738 is fine for me tbh, i think everyday use will be around the 700 mhz mark.

I'm worried that my clocks might be slowing down games.

680/1750/1000 in CSS Stress Test I get 162fps average (might be 172 cant remember), at 1680x1050 16xQCSAA,16xAF all high, but at 745/1800/1000 I get 170 , yet my 3DMark score is higher so I dunno whats happening

You got fraps running? Never seen artifacts like that before in ATi tool apart from wehn fraps is on.

 

[Neal]

I'm worried that my clocks might be slowing down games.


You got fraps running? Never seen artifacts like that before in ATi tool apart from wehn fraps is on.

Well im unsure as to this too, as my 3dmark06 scores have gotten less and less each oc i pulled 11122 out first go at 701mhz, and since then its gotten down to 10699. might roll back another driver.

Nope no fraps running.

Still uber happy with it though, kills the 320 gts and temps nice and low.

 

[The Asgard]

Glad to see the Bios voltage mod is working for you.

Great clocks BTW

 

[willhub]

I'm going to have to do more looking into it, I'm wondering if its CPU limited but it cant be sine a GTX can get 200+ at the same settings so overclocking should increase in CSS Stress Test, will try Lost Coast and Crysis later on when I get me new ram in. bit dissapointed with my 3DMark06 score thought the overclock would raise my score by more than 100 3DMarks , but oh well still an awsome card.

 

[Big.Wayne]

i pulled 11122 out first go at 701mhz, and since then its gotten down to 10699.

Hey Neal,

I get more 3DMark points running the card at stock?

 

[fornowagain]

I get more 3DMark points running the card at stock?

Vista vs XP

Well im unsure as to this too, as my 3dmark06 scores have gotten less and less each oc i pulled 11122 out first go at 701mhz, and since then its gotten down to 10699. might roll back another driver.

May not help running the shaders lower than the stock core to shader ratio of 2.5:1. It certainly wont help scores and the core may well be spinning its wheels waiting for the shader ops. You may find the temps increase a bit though, they're doing at lot of work at high frequencies.

600 > 1500

750 > 1875

670 > 1674

 

[Big.Wayne]

Vista vs XP

Oh I didn't see that pardon me!

 

[Neal]

Vista vs XP



May not help running the shaders lower than the stock core to shader ratio of 2.5:1. It certainly wont help scores and the core may well be spinning its wheels waiting for the shader ops. You may find the temps increase a bit though, they're doing at lot of work at high frequencies.

600 > 1500

750 > 1875

670 > 1674

ahhh never knew that, will leave the shaders strapped to core freq.

Im going to install XP on my second HDD tonight, and re-run all tests i have done.

Even though i only have an e2160, I'm aiming to crack 12000 ish. edit: my old 320 gts would only hit 10533 at max clock....

@bigwayne, yup cruddy vista

 

[willhub]

I cant leave the shaders strapped to core freq on mine , at 740 core the shaders are something like 1836 whilst my max is 1786 or something so it causes artifacts.

I'm praying crysis will run at 740core

 

[Greebo]

Interesting results with lucky people who have EVGA SCC boards on mvktech.net

Now unless they have different pcb, electronics etc or they really are the best cherry picked GT's out there, they are receiving incredible oc results.

Stock is decent at 700/1650/2000 but four people so far have posted that they get 770/1900/2050 with stock cooler.

More interesting than that is they all report worse overclocking results with the 1.1v modified bios supllied by that site. Theory is these cards are at their max oc and the extra voltage is adding heat making the max drop.

So, I have a few theories from this.

1. EVGA SCC cards with better cooling and the 1.1v mod could get even better overclocks.
2. Perhaps the bios for the EVGA SCC cards make the max oc acheivable better???? I get my bfg card tonight so I will find it's max, backup the bios, upload the evga scc bios and see if I get a better oc.
3. Plenty of people report an extra 20-30Mhz improvement with the 1.1v mod ( unless you have he EVGA SCC card) so for all those out there who are hitting only 720-730 max then it might be worth downloading the modified bios from his site and trying it- he has modded most manufacturer's bios now (normal warnings about your card will cause a nuclear explosion if you don't know what you are doing etc and don't blame me if you kill your card etc).
This is what I will try after the SCC bios.

Anybody else done this already, please let me know your results.

 

[The Asgard]

Anybody else done this already, please let me know your results.

Well the mod allowed me to push my card in 3D mark 06 to 16,331

Core 787
Shader 1955
Memory 1075

XFX Alpha Dog