Is it worth it to push the 6800GT?

[MaXThReAT]

I got my BFG 6800GToc (agp)when they first came out. I've almost always kept her clocked at 415/1116. I'm starting to need more juice for COD2, FEAR, NFSMW and whatnot.
I've had the card as high as 432/1125 & got 6035 on 3DM05. I think I'm voltage limited at anything higher than 432, I start getting a few artifacts in 3DM05. My Q is would it really be worth it to flash the card for 1.4v 3D. Do you think an everyday OC of 450/1128 on a GT would last long. I've got plenty of cooling. Zalman Vf700 on the card 100% copper and lots of case fans. For the past few weeks I've run @422 the GPU never reaches above 68c and I enjoyed a small bump in speed.
So what do you think would it be worth the risk for just a few more FPS?

O and whats the best program to test for artifacts and snow?

[slaWter]

I think you wouldn't get that much out of the higher OC.
I still have a 6800 Ultra in use at 450/1200 (H20 cooled). It's not much faster than with default clocks. Don't take that risk unless you'll upgrade to a PCIe rig soon.

[Rytr]

Think you know the answer. How much gain did you get from going from default to your present oc? Was it worth the gain?
Increasing voltage beyond specs has the potential of creating more problems and lessening the life of your card. It may work great, then it may not. Are you prepared to replace your card if it gives up?

[$n][pErMan]

I remember awhile back... after a few months with the bios flash everyones GT's died (except a few from people who acctually knew what they were doing). Id try optimizing other things on your PC. For example I found having 2gigs of ram running on very tight timings really made all my games very smooth. I run my GT at 400/1100 and I still play all my games at full settings. Might be around 40-50 FPS .. but that is VERY playable :)

[anticitizenzero]

If I were you I would sell the 6800 gt and use that money to upgrade, I used to have a 6800 Ultra and could only get up to 6000 3dmark05 score with overclocking, I don't see how I could push it any farther, don't risk ruining your hardware, instead, sell it and upgrade. (cheers)

[MaXThReAT]

I think you all are right. After reading a few of your post I searched back to 2004 posts and found alot of dead bfg6800gt cards. Lots of guessing with green and blue PCB but all in all very few positive results. I'm going to see how far I can push the card 24/7 on the standard BIOS, 430+ I hope. I'm planning on putting together a new rig within the next 6 months, either a duel GPU card or a 512GTX. I might just change over to AMD.

While I'm here, can anyone tell me the difference between gpu artifacts and mem artifacts. The way I remember if you get triangle polys the GPU is too high if you get snow the memory is too fast or overheating. And if it just crashes or major artifacts the GPU is at it's top???right?

[Rytr]

It can vary but normally what I have seen is 'sprites' (white specks, snowflakes, whatever) showing up when the memory is getting too hot. Artifacts such as bars running across the screen, or triangles, misrepresented color, etc. when the GPU is getting clocked too far. Also the screen locking up or freezing or getting kicked back to the desktop are indicators.

[aAv7]

I dont think any of that will give you the boost you need. A few more mhz up aint gonna deliver 20 frames....just use a smaller monitor...a 15 incher and play those games @ 1024x768...it'll still look beautiful on a 15 incher....my 19' wont allow for anything below 1280x1024 to look good. =/ Sure its bigger and all...but heck, id deal with a smaller monitor to give me crisper images than throw down $500 if im strapped for cash or waiting for the g71 or nv50.

[snowmanwithahat]

i doubt you'll get much better results by overclocking, i wouldn't do it, just keep it at a good decent level, because the most you'll get is a few fps

[joshua7]

If I were you I would sell the 6800 gt and use that money to upgrade, I used to have a 6800 Ultra and could only get up to 6000 3dmark05 score with overclocking, I don't see how I could push it any farther, don't risk ruining your hardware, instead, sell it and upgrade. (cheers)

Well, my GT does 6327 points at 450/1240. :)

[noko]

Look at this way, 420 to 450mhz is a 7% increase in speed. If gaming at 30FPS it will give a whopping 2 FPS increase. For me that would be hard to notice, plus if Ram speed doesn't go up, system speed as well, getting the full 7% is probably unlikely, so figure 1 FPS. At 20FPS a 7% increase will give a 1.4 FPS increase. I've had my GT at 1.4v now for 1.5 years and still going strong, I just keep it at 400/1100, it will do 420/1200 but I never use it at that speed for any length of time.

[john19055]

No to be honest you are not going to see that much of a increase even if you overclock 20mhz to 30mhz on the core,you could increase the core to 1.4v and it will more then likely give you a few more MHZ ,I have heard of a lot of sucsess with the voltage increase to 1.4v ,but it is a risk and most of the ones that I seen gone bad was when they increased it more then 1.4v,It is really just that time when you have to start thinking upgrade,to get the performance you want out of the newer games,and right now is a good time to sell ,because there is a lot of people wanting fast AGP cards,I just sold my 6800ultra on ebay and got $350 for it ,more then I thought I would get ,it paid for one of my upgrades Evga7800GT .

[hypertek]

i havent been on here in prolly a year. BF2 special forces has brung me back into pc gaming, and i feel my system is startin to lag.. so there really is some interest in selling my agp card on ebay huh... guess for those people who arent ready to upgrade their systems.. geez if only i wasnt strapped to finish building my s13 drift car, id sell my vid card and upgrade to pci express.. are pci express cards usually cheaper?

[snowmanwithahat]

i havent been on here in prolly a year. BF2 special forces has brung me back into pc gaming, and i feel my system is startin to lag.. so there really is some interest in selling my agp card on ebay huh... guess for those people who arent ready to upgrade their systems.. geez if only i wasnt strapped to finish building my s13 drift car, id sell my vid card and upgrade to pci express.. are pci express cards usually cheaper?

nah, get 2gb of RAM, it runs smooth as butter with my setup when i had 2gb of RAM installed, with only 1gb it's anything but smooth though.....