Geforce 6800NU overclocking

[BYUNews]

While I was fiddling around with my Geforce 6800, I noticed some strange overclocking results. Check this out:

60.80 Drivers
325/700: 7800 3DMarks
325/775: 8000 3DMarks
350/775: 8400 3DMarks (highest overclock)

61.72 Drivers
325/700: 8000 3DMarks
325/850: 8100 3DMarks
350/850: 8100 3DMarks
400/850: 9400 3DMarks (highest overclock)

Using the new drivers (which allowed me to clock much higher), nothing really happened with overclocking until - BAM! - I hit the magic 400/850 clock speed! 9400!. I never expected my 6800NU to run that fast. This sure seems to be the "sweet spot" for 6800NU OC'ers. I'm amazed what this card can do. Has anyone else gotten better results?

[ChrisRay]

hmm whats your processor speed?


I get 8,710 @ 325/900

[Jas28]

my best so far is 10034 with my 6800nu. I can clock it at 400/900. This is with the 61.34's. With the 61.72 I only get 9600. With the 62.11 I get 9900.

[BYUNews]

Jas28: Impressive. Maybe I'll give those 61.34 drivers a spin. What clock could you hit using 61.72s? Was it lower than 400/900? Do you think I could hit 400/900 if I changed my drivers? I'd really love to break 10K.

ChrisRay: I am running a Barton 2800 with 512mb DDR333 RAM, a Geforce 6800NU (of course), and an Audigy 2 ZS. I would clock it at 3200+, but I got duped into buying a KT400 (333mhz FSB) motherboard). I think you'd see some gains if you upped your core and put all that memory bandwidth to good use ...

Another thing, I'm very impressed with how cool this card is. I played Far Cry for 45 miinutes while overclocked last night, alt-tabbed with the temperature reading in front of me, and it was only 59 degrees!

[garikfox]

325/700

Driver:62.01
http://members.cox.net/garikfox/mark1.jpg



Havent benched 400/800 yet.

[BYUNews]

Garik: Nice score. It's probably higher than mine was at stock because you have a way faster CPU, but I'll make a point of trying those drivers out.

[carnivor3]

hello!
here is my score!
i tested it with my xp2400 and OC 6800nu @ 396/824
3dmark2003 (http://www.pixum.de/members/carnivor3/?url_member=carnivor3&act=a_view&album=1362605&i_pos=1&page=1&ktw=3fd368d4a4989527355795b672e1cddf&sid=r4wz5d35a07ffaee713bc3180b5f4415&n_sess=1)

does anyone activate the other 4 Pipelines @ 6800nu??

[BYUNews]

Carnivore: I don't think that's possible. Nvidia made a point of not pulling a "Radeon 9500", and made the 6800NU a different core than the other 6800s. I don't think the pipelines are physically there.

[ChrisRay]

325/700

Driver:62.01
http://members.cox.net/garikfox/mark1.jpg



Havent benched 400/800 yet.


Thats really impressed sometimes makes me wonder whats wrong with my system. Either or Memory OCS dont seem to help 2003 much.

[BYUNews]

Chris: Try upping the core. Memory OCs really didn't do anything for me until the core hit 400 (as you can see). Will your drivers let you bring the core to 400?

[ChrisRay]

Chris: Try upping the core. Memory OCs really didn't do anything for me until the core hit 400 (as you can see). Will your drivers let you bring the core to 400?


Ya if I bump it up to 350/900 I get 9,250 3dmarks, I just dont have the urge to OC my core atm..

Maybe when games start actually running slow at the settings I play in.. I will. Until then its just benching goodness ;) However I see a huge improvement in Anti Aliasing performance with my Memory @ 900 verses 700. Which is something I see in every game I play :)

[garikfox]

Umm guyz thats STOCK but I might have a better CPU/Setup then u may add almost 600points to the mix no ?

[garikfox]

One problem I have NOW I will POST here, cuz I like the Colors at this site , LoL.


Ok, What is the best tuner for 62.11 :) RIVATUNER does NOT wrk... :)

Coolbits2: i think is NOT comp. with the 62.xx drivers....

[Rollo]

I didn't get huge increases in actual gaming performance OCing my 6800NU, but I'm pretty happy with it's performance at stock speeds anyway:

UT2003 Holy Sh*t settings (all highest), 4X 8X, sound on, nVidia on "Quality":

325/700MHz
12X9
Flyby 126fps Botmatch 68fps
16X12
Flyby 68fps Botmatch 43fps

390/832MHz

12X9
Flyby 158fps Botmatch 74fps
16X12
Flyby 82fps Botmatch 49fps

To me, I don't know if it's worth the 20% OC to get 10% higher botmatch performance? I don't think OCing this card is going to get you above it's 12X10 optimum performance threshold, and I don't think you'd notice the difference at 12X10.

That being said, I'm most impressed with this thing's out of the box performance at the $300 price point. A very nice performance increase over the 5800U/9800P I spent the first half of the year with.
When you throw in the gains I saw with SM3, the 6800NU is just a great bargain.

[ChrisRay]

Umm guyz thats STOCK but I might have a better CPU/Setup then u may add almost 600points to the mix no ?


I was aware of that. You have a64 system and I have an Athlon XP system.

[HT_Flyer]

I got this score with 350/780. Driver 60.58(come with the evga cd)

[BYUNews]

Pretty good flyer. The 350/775 and 400/850 speeds seem to be the best-performing overclocks, as far as I can tell. Any of you guys know how to record Far Cry demos so I can see if this 3DMark boost translates into real-world gaming?

[BYUNews]

Well, I used "benchemall" to check if there was a big real-world leap in speed between stock and 400/850. Here's what I found:

Far Cry
Using Max settings.
Map: Fort Demo: BenchemallDefaultDemo

1024x768
Stock Average FPS: 36.41
Overclocked Average FPS: 37.04

1280x1024
Stock Average FPS: 34.34
Overclocked Average FPS: 35.91

1600x1200
Stock Average FPS: 24.23
Overclocked Average FPS: 26.16

Unreal Tournament 2004
Max details settings

1024x768
Stock Average FPS: 98.39
Overclocked Average FPS: 97.61

1280x1024
Stock Average FPS: 100.86
Overclocked Average FPS: 100.21

1600x1024
Stock Average FPS: 96.19
Overclocked Average FPS: 95.62

The results speak for themselves - the overclocking really doesn't do anything. At best, we see an increase of 2 or 3 FPS in Far Cry, but at unplayable settings. What do you guys think? For now, it's back to stock for me, until I see a compelling reason to overclock this thing.

[ChrisRay]

BYUNews, I dont mean to say I dont trust your results. But I can definately speak for UT2004 showing signifigant gains from OCing. Hmm hang on I'll do some stock scores first


Carnivore: I don't think that's possible. Nvidia made a point of not pulling a "Radeon 9500", and made the 6800NU a different core than the other 6800s. I don't think the pipelines are physically there.

Actually according to ixbt labs the 4 pipes can still be enabled, But they were broken on their 6800NU.

[Blacklash]

Some of you guys are getting X800Pro scores(Default to light OC) Goodshow.

[ChrisRay]

Well. My findings disagree with yours a bit NY, But not a great deal.

I'm surprised how little effect the 200 mhz extra bandwith actually had on the performance of this card, Which leads me to believe they are not as bandwith limited as I would have originally guessed. (At least at 1024x768, But should scale accordingly at least at 1280x1024)

Maybe thats why Nvidia outfitted them with cheaper memory?

[BYUNews]

Chris: It looks like memory bandwidth really isn't a problem until AA and AF come on. Sometime today I'll bench UT2004 and Far Cry with AA and AF on.

[BYUNews]

Ok, here it is. I benched with 2x/4x and 4x/8x, both OC'd (400/850) and stock. Watching BenchEmAll run through Far Cry, I don't think the AA worked, so those results probably only reflect the performance hit of AF.

Results: (http://byunews.tripod.com/6800.html)

Even with AA and AF on, there isnt' a huge benefit to match the huge overclock of 400/850. The only remotely signifigant gain was 10FPS at 4x/8x and 1600*1200 in UT2004. I'm guessing this is because, at any less demanding setting, my computer has some hardcore CPU bottlenecking going on - not that these framerates are anything to complain about, though!

[nvjarett]

How is the NU guys. I'm thinking of buying one. Which brand do you recommend ? Will it run Doom 3 like butter on 1024X768 w/ no AA or AF ?

[ChrisRay]

I think so nvjarret, A lot of people seem to be hard on the 6800 because its not "killing" the 9800XT and 5950 in all situations with AA/AF. Thats mostly because of its memory though.

The card has proven to be very stable for me. And I have enjoyed it a great deal. But I reccomend OCing the memory as much as possible. It will help with AA/AF where the card seems to have a lil trouble at higher resolutions.