6800GT > 6800 Ultra flash (successful, and details!)

ben johnson said:
The cards are different hardware wise, but it still seems to work fine. Just remember you're taking a risk. There's a reason why there's and ultra and GT card, they are different.
Click to expand...

I don't think anybody is reading this thread through :(

ScHpAnKy said:
I don't think anybody is reading my update to the original post...
the GT is the base-line card, the Ultra is factory overclocked and over-volted.
For the exception of the extra molex circuitry, the PCB is EXACTLY the same between
the 6800GT and 6800 Ultra / Ultra Extreme

As for success for the BFG cards, check out the post I made on my mini-forum:
http://www.nervelan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=102

And you can mod a 6800 into a GT, but the success rate is low... there IS a reason for those extra 4 pipes being disabled.
Click to expand...
 
ScHpAnKy said:
no you don't :)
I don't even own a floppy/floppy drive
Click to expand...

Two things.

1) You do your card bios flashing from a DOS boot-CD?

2) The cards are different hardware BECAUSE of the capacitors and molex connector added to the ultra. You keep reiterating that they are the same hardware after you pointed out that the Ultra has extra voltage regulation hardware. That makes them different. The GPU may be the same, the PCB may be the same, but the fact that there are different parts attached to the two makes them different hardware.

Man, I'm so excited for all my other stuff to show up, I can't wait to put this card in a comp that can use it. 429/1200 ran for 4 hours without breaking 81C or artifacting at all.
 
Great Scott!!!

IT DOES WORK

MSI 6800GT 256 now Nvidia 6800Ultra

I went from 400/1100 to now 435/1150

With the Arctic Silencer my card maxes out at 60C GPU.

I know it's not any more then 10% but I kinda consider this a good thing.

It's like finding out that there's ONE MORE beer in the fridge and it's yours.

Add me to that list!

Psyko M.
 
etruscan said:
Two things.

1) You do your card bios flashing from a DOS boot-CD?

2) The cards are different hardware BECAUSE of the capacitors and molex connector added to the ultra. You keep reiterating that they are the same hardware after you pointed out that the Ultra has extra voltage regulation hardware. That makes them different. The GPU may be the same, the PCB may be the same, but the fact that there are different parts attached to the two makes them different hardware.

Man, I'm so excited for all my other stuff to show up, I can't wait to put this card in a comp that can use it. 429/1200 ran for 4 hours without breaking 81C or artifacting at all.
Click to expand...

1.) Yep
2.) The extra circuitry is only required for the extra molex which is not required at all, yet everybody seems to believe that this is such a key factor.
 
PSYKOMANTIS said:
Great Scott!!!

IT DOES WORK

MSI 6800GT 256 now Nvidia 6800Ultra

I went from 400/1100 to now 435/1150

With the Arctic Silencer my card maxes out at 60C GPU.

I know it's not any more then 10% but I kinda consider this a good thing.

It's like finding out that there's ONE MORE beer in the fridge and it's yours.

Add me to that list!

Psyko M.
Click to expand...


all set
also, thanks for reminding me that I'm trying to stay dry :(
 
flashed my leadtek gt to ultra, now stable at 420/1150 as opposed to 400/1100, using leadtek's 'stock' heatsink :p max temp of around 80c didnt change.
 
WeatherB said:
Huge waste of time...

I tried overclocking my BFG 6800 GT to the BFG 6800 Ultra and the flash went okay and everything worked fine. I ran driver cleaner and reinstalled the drivers for the 6800 Ultra.

I tried overclocking and noticed that my card couldn't even run the stock OC speeds (425 / 1100). After a few minutes of 3DMark, the entire screen would become artifacts.

I played around with the settings for about an hour and managed to get it to 420 / 1200 stable; however, my resulting score was only 11912 in 3DMark03, lower than the 12399 my GT would get.

Needless to say, two hours later, I'm back to my previous configurations.
Click to expand...

I'm finding the same thing. I flashed w/ eVGA Ultra BIOS rev4 (my card is eVGA GT), uninstalled drivers, ran driver cleaner and reinstalled 66.70s. RTHDRIBL ran fine for awhile even at 450/1.15, and the temps were only several degrees higher than originally at 410/1.10 (its watercooled). I was very happy.

Until I tried to benchmark. I'd get hard locks at anything above stock 430 core. 430 isn't bad at all, except that score gave me 800 3DMarks less than I used to get. So whats the deal? The clock speeds are 5% higher, voltage 0.1V higher and mem the same but the card scores less? :confused: I'm still going to try out a couple games to see if avg. FPS decrease as well. Did everyone with successful flashes experience this?

edit: I tried another Ultra BIOS - nVidia reference rev1. It also had decreased benchmark performance when compared to my GT BIOS. Which got me to thinking... aren't you are also changing your RAM timings (since there's 'supposed' to be different chips) when flashing to an Ultra BIOS? It may be possible that the 1.6ns RAM uses higher timings than the 2.0ns, bringing down memory performance some. Dunno if this is true, but it might make some sense of this... I'm now back to original GT BIOS, and just brought up the OC a little more to satisfy the urge :p
 
How do I do this with a CD? I dont have a floppy drive. Also, what BIOS should I use for a BFG 6800 GT "OC" ( blue PCB ). And is the copper cooler it comes with good enough? :confused:
 
Why does my control panel say PCI X0????? Shouldn't it say AGP?

WTF.JPG


What's up with that. Because when I try to flash the bios or even save them it says PCI not present....
 
Hey guys I finally got it working right. I think I must have been doing the steps wrong. My card is now running at 431/1.11. My temps are 55 idle and 62 on load. (Stock cooling) I'm considering purchasing the NV5 for this bad boy now. Thought I think my temps are fine. Here is what I did to get my flash to work properly. It's very simular to everyone elses.

Step 1) Download the nvFlash 4.42

Step 2) Download the bios editor located here http://www.mvktech.net/index.php?op...ad&filecatid=56

Step 3) Make a boot disc and put the nvFlash on the disc. Boot into dos and back up your bios a:\nvflash -b backup.rom (pretty much just copy what I wrote) This puts the original bios on the floppy drive and saves it as BACKUP.ROM. Keep that name.

Step 4) Boot back into the windows and use the bios editor and change your 3D voltage to 1.4V and your clock and memory speeds to whatever your card will run stable at. (I'd suggest overclocking your card and seeing what she will do and then flashing your bios; that's what I did. I did 3 extensive days worth of testing. Also back up your original bios somewhere and hang onto them incase you ever want to sell your card you can flash back to the original)

Step 5) Save the bios that you just altered using the bios editor. Copy that new saved version to the floppy drive and boot into dos once again. To flash use this command. a:\nvflash -p -u -f backup.rom

You now have the 6800 Ultra.. (I take no responsibility for your cards malfunction)
 
Just a few questions I need an answer to:

I have a Galaxy Geforce 6800GT and I want to flash it to a 6800 ultra. Will I be okay using the reference ultra bios file?

Also, what about ram timings on the graphics cards? The ultra is 1.6ns and the GT is 2.0ns, will it work okay at the faster settings. The reason I ask is because I used to have a 9800pro and when I flashed it to a 9800xt it came up with artifacts all the time but when I had the 9800 pro bios I could run at xt speeds just fine...

I see you guys seem to have 6800 gt's that are running at faster speeds than the default 6800 ultra, how is this possible. I thought the default speed was 350/1000 for the gt and 400/1100 for the ultra?

My card runs at 375/1000 I think and already has a AC5 fitted. Advice please. Thanks
 
gt's run at 375/1000 stock not 350 and yeah it's possible.. well almost all gt's can clock up to the 400/1100 specs of an ultra.. well most ultra's at least cause my PNY 6800 ultra came 425.. like bfg's also.. u can try overclocking urs to ultra speeds too... u and lots of others have a big chance unless ur unlucky and get one of the schmo overclockers :) gl
 
Ok, I tried overclocking the gpu to ultra speeds last night (without modifying agp voltages or anything) but I could only reach 395/1100 stabily. Would increasing the agp voltages to ultra levels smooth the stability out or should I just leave it alone?
 
aZn_plyR said:
gt's run at 375/1000 stock not 350 and yeah it's possible.. well almost all gt's can clock up to the 400/1100 specs of an ultra.. well most ultra's at least cause my PNY 6800 ultra came 425.. like bfg's also.. u can try overclocking urs to ultra speeds too... u and lots of others have a big chance unless ur unlucky and get one of the schmo overclockers :) gl
Click to expand...

stock GT's are 350, certain cards (BFG 6800 GT OC) are overclocked at factory, (my BFG defaults to 371)
 
umm make sure you have good cooling like liquid if not no dont do and


i would say no just overclock lot less risker
 
Just wondering what card, and what bios would be recommended for doing this? Should you use the bios from the same company as your card or what?

-zac
 
Bump

I have the same card as Spooks (runs at 370/1000 stock) Anyone flashed this to an ultra?

Cheers
 
Linuxtim said:
Bump

I have the same card as Spooks (runs at 370/1000 stock) Anyone flashed this to an ultra?

Cheers
Click to expand...


Try upping the clock speeds with coolbits reg up to 400/1100 to see if it goes up to ultra speeds. My card could only get up to 395/1100...
 
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