6800 Overclocking Warning!

[oozish]

For those of you like myself who thought the Nvidia control panel autodetect was conservative and fairly fool proof...you better check your graphics carefully for anomolies and artififacts. My Recent GT shows I can 'safely' overclock my card to 423/1100 according to the autodetect.

I've trusted this until recently when I read the white 'spots' that flicer for an instant on Far Cry loading screens are actually artifacts. I noticed more artifacts in the River level. I started looking closely at this issue and started from stock by running test 4, mother nature, in 3dmark.

This test, run 2x in a row, is excellent for finding out quickly if you're getting artifacts. Closely watch the turtle shell. Any flickering whatsoever is an artifact. The cool thing is if you run this test 2-3x consecutively you'll definately find out if you have artifacting.

I went from a healthy 420/1150 overclock to a 410/1100 stable overclock by applying stringent rules and accepting no artifacting whatsoever. My card is running cool even at the 420, so it's really more a matter of whether or not your card has the luck of the draw.

I'm happy with a 410/1100; I already told myself I wasn't going to overclock higher than 400/1100 anyway. But I just thought since this artifacting can be tricky to see (and isn't readily apparent in my case..I've been playing far cry daily without noticing it for the most part) someone might want to double check their overclock to ensure they are truly 'ARTIFACT FREE'.

 

[t0x1k]

Did you just autodetect once? You need to do it multiple times, I went from 425Mhz core 1100ram to 400/1100 ram after 5 autodetects.

 

[TimothyB]

I'm a noob nvidia user again. What overclocking software are you using that has this so called auto detect?

 

[t5brick]

it's built into the drivers after you unlock it with the coolbits hack.

it's funny. mine autodetected at 420/1110, but i've got it stable at 430/1170. i'll have to try looping test 4 and watching very carefully now.

 

[oozish]

Did you just autodetect once? You need to do it multiple times, I went from 425Mhz core 1100ram to 400/1100 ram after 5 autodetects.

I've autodetected on this card at least 5x.

 

[tornadotsunamilife]

I'm happy with a 410/1100; I already told myself I wasn't going to overclock higher than 400/1100 anyway. But I just thought since this artifacting can be tricky to see (and isn't readily apparent in my case..I've been playing far cry daily without noticing it for the most part) someone might want to double check their overclock to ensure they are truly 'ARTIFACT FREE'.

it isn't the best overclock i've seen out there for a GT but who cares? you still saved money by getting past ultra speeds and you still can enjoy your games

 

[oozish]

it's built into the drivers after you unlock it with the coolbits hack.

it's funny. mine autodetected at 420/1110, but i've got it stable at 430/1170. i'll have to try looping test 4 and watching very carefully now.

It shouldn't take more than 3 loops if your card is warmed up...it's fairly obvious flickering on the turtle shell. It will go away as soon as you're artifact free. The white flecks on the loading screen of Far Cry still happen for me though, so I don't think those are artifacts. There aren't many, it's like the screen flickers and you can see a small white fleck on the art/loading screen....anyone else see this?

 

[s10010001]

Autodect is for n00bs, i dont use it start going up 5Mhz at a time find the sweet spot for your card your self

 

[oozish]

it isn't the best overclock i've seen out there for a GT but who cares? you still saved money by getting past ultra speeds and you still can enjoy your games

Well, I can take my card to 430/1100 and you can't really tell anythings wrong except for in game 4. I took my memory to 1200 and 1150 but running 3dmark2003 would reboot sometimes, so I'm guessing that's not stable.

 

[theNoid]

Actually autodetect is the best way to get a good idea where to oc at, then you adjust 1-5mhz at a time. Sorry, but using autodetect does not make you a n00b.. lol.

 

[oozish]

Actually autodetect is the best way to get a good idea where to oc at, then you adjust 1-5mhz at a time. Sorry, but using autodetect does not make you a n00b.. lol.

Agreed.

 

[bsoft]

For those of you like myself who thought the Nvidia control panel autodetect was conservative and fairly fool proof...you better check your graphics carefully for anomolies and artififacts. My Recent GT shows I can 'safely' overclock my card to 423/1100 according to the autodetect.

I've trusted this until recently when I read the white 'spots' that flicer for an instant on Far Cry loading screens are actually artifacts. I noticed more artifacts in the River level. I started looking closely at this issue and started from stock by running test 4, mother nature, in 3dmark.

This test, run 2x in a row, is excellent for finding out quickly if you're getting artifacts. Closely watch the turtle shell. Any flickering whatsoever is an artifact. The cool thing is if you run this test 2-3x consecutively you'll definately find out if you have artifacting.

I went from a healthy 420/1150 overclock to a 410/1100 stable overclock by applying stringent rules and accepting no artifacting whatsoever. My card is running cool even at the 420, so it's really more a matter of whether or not your card has the luck of the draw.

I'm happy with a 410/1100; I already told myself I wasn't going to overclock higher than 400/1100 anyway. But I just thought since this artifacting can be tricky to see (and isn't readily apparent in my case..I've been playing far cry daily without noticing it for the most part) someone might want to double check their overclock to ensure they are truly 'ARTIFACT FREE'.

I've found that artifacts usually are more due to memory overclocking than to core overclocking. The core will usually lock up before it starts giving artifacts, whereas the memory will keep going in artifacted glory for some time.

410/1100 is still better than the 6800 Ultra, so I'd just be happy that you have such a fast card. I sure as hell wish I had one (and, hopefully, I'll have one in a month).