did i just get lucky... or is this common?

[Kamel]

i am just totally in shock right now. i recently bought a 6800gt used from a guy who didn't overclock it much. it was an evga (and i HATE the coolers that come with these things). i decided i was going to put my custom cooling block on it, but the mounting holes weren't big enough. then i turned to my zalman that i was considering selling. i figured it may help it a little bit, but i didn't expect anything dramatic. what i did get was absolutely beyond my comprehension. i overclocked this card to 440Mhz core and 1.17 memory, easily. during full load situations, the highest it's ever gotten was 62C. before, it darn near idled at 62C. it was 76C load before.

is this normal, or did i happen to get a good one? or am i being lied to?

my next question is, once i get my custom heatsink on (which will pwn the pants off of this zalman) i would say i will never have a problem with heat, lol. do you think i could get any higher clocks than this without increasing the voltage? also, if i could, can i relatively safely increase the voltage on the core to allow for an even higher overclock maybe through a BIOS mod or the like?

thanks for any help, i'm so impressed with this card. i had no idea that this thing would be this awesome, heh. very many thanks as well to Vx, he is probably the best guy i've ever traded with online, not to mention i got this card for a steal ($225)

[sam375]

I did 456/1220 on air /w stock voltages and load temps at around 45C. My card was a PNY. Id say your results are above average. Dont expect anything past 460 on air, only a few lucky (or really skilled) people have pulled that off.

[Kamel]

well, that same heatsink was able to pull off a 620mhz core overclock on a 5900u, so it's definitely got some power that's not common to air cooling, lol.

not to mention, i've got a koolance water cooling system with a vga water block in the mail, lol.

[betterdan]

That is incredible!

[einstein_314]

Wow, that's a pretty sweet overclock on air. I'd say you're pretty lucky getting that card (and you got a wicked deal too). I'd expect that you will be able to go a bit higher with your Koolance setup when it arrives. Wow, that's pretty sweet though.

[Kamel]

i still haven't tested it completely for full load situations, but i know it's stable enough to play bf2 for 2+ hours without a hiccup or a single artifact at everything maxed out except for lighting (it's on medium, to help with hang frames that bf2 loves so much =\). it's on the res just before 1280x1024 (it's an odd res, but i can get 80hz refresh on it, and 1280x1024 i can only get 60hz). 4xaf as well.