Overclocking my 6800GT

[alexander]

Hello, I was bored today so i decided to overclock my 6800GT MSI.

I read that ultra speeds were 400mhz and 1.1ghz for the memory, is this right?

I put them up straight away to 400mhz and 1.1ghz. One thing I didn't know was if I was meant to pit both the 2d and 3d core to 400mhz? I did and the PC seemd to run so I don't think I did anything wrong.

Before I was idling at around 68 degrees and maxed at around 80 degrees (My arctic Silencer is undervolted to 5 Volts so it is silent)

But when I did this my Idle temperatures are now 58 degrees and a max of 72

Is this an error in the drivers? I have tried both sets and I am now still at 58 degrees which is 10 degrees lower than my normal 6800GT, or is it that running overclocked reduces temperatures?

I put the card straight to ultra speeds so perhaps this caused it? I have never overclocked before and only did it as I was bored.

These are my 3Dmark 2005 Scores:

Normal: 4774

Ultra Speeds (To the best of my knowledge) : 4918

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=771079


What I am doing, is it dangerous and are these scores around right? Should I push it further as the PC is running fine at the moment with Ultra Speeds, my card is AGP and made by MSI.

Is AGP slower than PCI-E 6800GT cards?


Sorry about the questiions but I am kinda confused by the whole thing

[Allen]

If you're GT is the same as mine (which it should be) you're original speeds would've been 350/1000. Jumping straight up to 400/1100 is not really a good idea, you should try one at a time and take it up in increments, test it and stop if you get errors.

Temps wise, that would seem very strange! How are you testing the temps? Temperatures certainly don't decrease when overclocking, so I would assume it isn't overclocked, but your 3DMark scores suggest that it is... Weird.

You may have been lucky to get a card that does Ultra speeds straight out of the box, but if it really is ok there's nothing wrong with pushing it further, as long as you don't just whack it up to 500/1200 or something!

[alexander]

I'm reading the temperatures in both Riva Tuner and Nvidia control panel.

That temperaure monitoring thing in Rivatuner shows the Core Speed, Memory Speed and Temperatures. It is definately 401mhz Core and 1004 Memory.

What scores does your card get when on normal settings?
I heard that mine are strangely low on Kustom PC and that someone's 6600GT got over 5000!!!!


I was under the impression that all 6800GTs went to Ultra settings so I just got the numbers and moved the sliders right up

It seems to be working fine and with none of that strange colour stuff so I guess it's working fine.

So you thinking it is a driver error about the temperatures or just they are actually lower?

[Allen]

I haven't tried 3DMark 2005 yet, haven't been interested in benching for a while. I can't get onto over-clock.co.uk from work, but I think my sig has my 03 and 01 results in it if you wanna try and find a post (haven't been there too often lately either).

I wouldn't know if it's a driver error or what, but I certainly know the card wouldn't be cooler when overclocked. Overclocking means it will run faster, the faster it runs, the more heat it dissipates.

What's the rest of your system setup? Perhaps that could help answer why you think your 05 score might be a little low?

[ANZAC_ELITE]

my ultra is 425/1100 default, oc to spec in sig

EDIT: there was a temp reporting bug in the early 71.XX series, try the 76.44 WHQL (personally I prefer the 76.41 beta) 76.44WHQL gave me game freezes

Your call, my tuppence worth

[Allen]

Most Ultra's are 400/1100 as standard, yours must have been factory overclocked like the BFG OC cards.

[alexander]

Hmm, my score does seem a little lowe then if you 5,657. ( I thought that score was on stock and not on some crazy overclock)


The rest of my system is 3500+ 64 Bit, MSI Neo2 Platinum, 1GB Dual Channel PC3200, 2 x Samsung Spinpoint Drives and I think that's about it.

I'm not really into benchmarks or overclocking as it runs all my games maxed out but I was just wondering and bored.......

Haven't got 2001 or 2003 3D Mark though..

Perhaps defragmenting will help?

[ANZAC_ELITE]

Hmm, my score does seem a little lowe then if you 5,657. ..........

you nailed the exact same score as me

can you tell me your spec to achieve that please, I'm burning, a gt at ??? equals my ultra oc ??

no malice, just curious.

EDIT: misread the the post doh, apologies

EDIT2: at stock I scored 5302 on 3DMark05

[Butcher]

I don't normally run my GTs overclocked, it caused too many stability issues for my liking (have enough of them from nvidia's drivers!)

[oralpain]

The card will work with the 2d and 3d speeds the same, but there is no reason, in most cases, to up the 2d speed.

What drivers are you using alexander? The current offical ones have a temperature bug on startup, but it goes away if you run 3d accelerated apps for any time.

I think your card may be throttling. The difference should be larger from stock GT to Ultra speeds.

I'm getting 5,704 in 3dmark 2005, default test, quality driver settings, with the system in my sig. My score with stock graphics clocks are several hundred points lower. Maybe the rest of your system is holding you back.

Try putting the 2d GPU clock to default and leaving riva tuners hardware monitor up while running 3dmark 2005. If the GPU clock drops down to the 3d speed at any point other than when it is switching tests, or stays at the 2d speed for more than a few seconds, your overclock is not stable and the card is throttling.

I don't normally run my GTs overclocked, it caused too many stability issues for my liking (have enough of them from nvidia's drivers!)

My overclocks are exactly as stable as the stock speeds of my components. If you get any kind of instability while overclocking, ever, you are not doing it correctly. I check, double check, and tripple check all my OC in the harshes conditions I can expect to ever run into for extended periods of time. A single artifact anywhere (even if I can't see it), a single unexplained lock up or crash, and I don't use that overclock.

[alexander]

Hmm, Just run it again and I am now getting 4304

This is damn well crazy


I have put all the settings back onto stock and I am getting 5238!!!!!


I don't know what the hell is happening but 5238 on stock can't be that bad

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=771620

[oralpain]

5238 stock is pritty good, though the link says your GPU was running at 400MHz.

[alexander]

Hmm, it seems it was.

I did set it back to normal but I guess it didn't.

So 5238 is good for a 400mhz core?

[alexander]

I'm really frightened of damaging my card.

Are these lower temperatures the real temperatures or are they just a messed up reading?

[oralpain]

On mine the lower temps obtained after running some 3d programs was the correct temp.

If you haven't screwed with the voltage the card can handel quite high temps without damage.

I've seen alot of problems with 6800GT not having thermalpaste spread properly. Some of mine had air bubbles that perevneted part of the die from being in contact with the heatsink. Even though temps reported fine, these cards died within 2-3 months. This is why I recommend that everyone replace the thermal coumpound on their cards.

I spread a thin layer on the die, then I put a small blob of paste on the middle of the die. This spreads out when you put the heatsink back on and prevents any air from being trapped.

I also lap all of my heatsinks. It defiantly helps, but is not necissary.

[pudds]

How in hell are your temps so high? My 6800gt hit 56C full load overclocked to 410/1100 using an arctic silencer.