6800NU +16 Pipes?

Well, you'll notice that the 6800 was widely available before the GT or U, and has more flavors in stock at regular retailers than almost any other new gen card. The 128mb of DDR1 cuts down the price a lot I'm sure, but a few of these will probably end up being overclocking gems with 16 working pipelines. I wouldn't count on it, however, and would still consider the 6800 the budget card and not for the enthusiast.

But I will reserve judgement until we see if the softmod works at all and if they will drop prices on the 256mb versions.
 
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf6800-oc_5.html

So, the question sounds like this: Is it possible to turn on all of the 16 pipelines on the NVIDIA GeForce 6800?

Yes, it is! This is easy: just flash the BIOS from the GeForce 6800 Ultra. After the BIOS re-flash, the graphics processor enables all 16 pixel pipelines and the card becomes… NON-OPERATIONAL!

Why? Because those four missing pipelines hadn’t been disabled just for nothing – they have certain defects, which show themselves as artifacts in 3D applications after you enable those pipelines. You won’t have the opportunity of returning things back easily: after flashing back the BIOS from the 12-pipelined GeForce 6800 you’ll see that the situation remains the same – the card still has 16 pipelines and also has those 3D artifacts. In order to disable the defective pipe-work and restore the card’s operability you will need special software and a specially modified version of the BIOS.

Thus, although it is possible to transform a GeForce 6800 into a GeForce 6800 Ultra/GT by turning on all 16 pipelines, there’s no practical gain from that so far: the disabled pipelines are 100% sure to have defects and their turning on results in various visual artifacts.

There’s no sense to hope that some of NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 chips have 16 “healthy” pipelines and some of them are just disabled for no particular reason – NVIDIA is not in a position to make such gifts today. The chips are tested back at the factory and are immediately sorted. Fully operational chips are transformed into the GeForce 6800 Ultra/GT, and those that have certain defects – defects that that can be avoided by disabling a few pipelines – become the 12-pipelined GeForce 6800.

It is of course possible that the NV40 manufacturing process will be improved after a while. In this case, there will be an insufficient amount of defective chips to produce the GeForce 6800 in mass quantities, and NVIDIA will have to turn pipelines off in fully operational chips. By that time, however, NVIDIA will certainly have introduced various protection techniques, and it will be less easy to make any kind of conversion to the GeForce 6800.
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:(
 
ehZn said:
But I will reserve judgement until we see if the softmod works at all and if they will drop prices on the 256mb versions.
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Budget? When I think of Budget I think of a 9200SE or any MX card, but the 6800nu is hardly a 'budget' card! It may be a crippled GT but if a crippled GT still beats a $400 9800XT and is extrondinarily better then my current (and formerly expensive mind you) 9800Pro then it's not a 'budget' card, rather an extremely sweet deal thanks to ATi's bitter rival, nVidia.
 
Using 2.8ns ddr1 you would be so memery bandwidth starved at 16 pipes ... ick ... its just ugly to think about it. Still cool you can do it, if only ati had not hardlocked their pipes *sigh*.
 
101998 said:
Using 2.8ns ddr1 you would be so memery bandwidth starved at 16 pipes ... ick ... its just ugly to think about it. Still cool you can do it, if only ati had not hardlocked their pipes *sigh*.
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My 6800nu has 256mb of 2.0ns gddr3. :p
 
GeniusInABottle said:
My 6800nu has 256mb of 2.0ns gddr3. :p
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what make, and how much did you pay? all of the 256 meg nus are more expensive than GTs....if you paid more for an nu than a gt, then you suck at life.
 
Leright said:
what make, and how much did you pay? all of the 256 meg nus are more expensive than GTs....if you paid more for an nu than a gt, then you suck at life.
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t's in his sig.

LOL I saw the V9999 gamer's edition for $420 in the deals forum.
 
Leright said:
what make, and how much did you pay? all of the 256 meg nus are more expensive than GTs....if you paid more for an nu than a gt, then you suck at life.
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I payed a little more for a card that's faster than any 6800nu, almost as fast as a GT, and was actually available when I was looking. Not to mention it comes with a nice bundle, is from a reputable company, and is both aesthetically pleasing and truly unique. No other card like it. I don't think it's all that silly, really.

And then there's the 6800 pipe mod...
 
GeniusInABottle said:
I payed a little more for a card that's faster than any 6800nu, almost as fast as a GT, and was actually available when I was looking. Not to mention it comes with a nice bundle, is from a reputable company, and is both aesthetically pleasing and truly unique. No other card like it. I don't think it's all that silly, really.

And then there's the 6800 pipe mod...
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The vagueness of your post shows that you are hiding something. How much did you pay for that Asus card? $420? LMAO

You do realize that you could have waited for a very short time and gotten a GT, which performs BETTER, for less money, right....

and even with the pipe mod (which probably won't work anyways, so you're fucked...and you probably bought the asus card before you knew about the pipe mod) you probably won't be able to OC it up to quite the same speed as a GT.
 
Leright said:
The vagueness of your post shows that you are hiding something. How much did you pay for that Asus card? $420? LMAO

You do realize that you could have gotten a GT, which performs BETTER for less money....
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Yes, I could have spent significantly less and waited.. and waited.. or I could have did what I did, which is bought the best card which was available to me. I'm happy with my purchase and nothing you say will change this. :)
 
BakedGoods said:
Budget? When I think of Budget I think of a 9200SE or any MX card, but the 6800nu is hardly a 'budget' card! It may be a crippled GT but if a crippled GT still beats a $400 9800XT and is extrondinarily better then my current (and formerly expensive mind you) 9800Pro then it's not a 'budget' card, rather an extremely sweet deal thanks to ATi's bitter rival, nVidia.
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Well yea, I consider a $300 card compared to a $500 card a budget version. C'mon, bro, this is [H], budget for us is high end for the computer illiterate :D

And the pricing of the 6800 256mb DDR1 is absolutely stupid. No one will buy the card with GT's available until they lower it to $350 or less.
 
The 256 6800's are GDDR3 not DDR1. Besides, what is Asus talking about touting the 10 layer PCB design? Isn't that required for GDDR3? And how does one put accent marks in normal typing? Like tres, thats missing the accent over the e. WTF?1?
 
It still makes absolutely no sense to me....Take a card which is essentially a GT, disable 4 pixel pipes, put a nice looking hsf on it and then sell it for a higher price than some real GT's? :confused:
 
joemama said:
It still makes absolutely no sense to me....Take a card which is essentially a GT, disable 4 pixel pipes, put a nice looking hsf on it and then sell it for a higher price than some real GT's? :confused:
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some of you are forgetting that the asus nu with 256 megs of ram has an impressive bundle of games and other assorted things that the GTs don't have...and it's clocked higher than the GT.

It's still retarded though....I'd buy a GT over an nu 256 with a bunch of shitty games.
 
Leright said:
some of you are forgetting that the asus nu with 256 megs of ram has an impressive bundle of games and other assorted things that the GTs don't have...and it's clocked higher than the GT.

It's still retarded though....I'd buy a GT over an nu 256 with a bunch of shitty games.
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Far Cry that came with my $399 eVGA GT is the only bundled videocard game I've ever gotten that was worth a damn (or haven't already played)...I'm one of those people who really don't care about software bundles with hardware.
 
joemama said:
Far Cry that came with my $399 eVGA GT is the only bundled videocard game I've ever gotten that was worth a damn (or haven't already played)...I'm one of those people who really don't care about software bundles with hardware.
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I'm the same way...I don't give a shit about bundled games. I am just pointing out something that a lot of you people seem to be overlooking.

It would probably be wise of asus to just drop the software bundle though, and sell the card like 50 bucks cheaper at around $350-360.
 
Leright said:
I'm the same way...I don't give a shit about bundled games. I am just pointing out something that a lot of you people seem to be overlooking.

It would probably be wise of asus to just drop the software bundle though, and sell the card like 50 bucks cheaper at around $350-360.
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I agree, the card is currently over-priced, but then again right now so are GT's at most places. Not to mention they're extreme unavailability. That's the way it is with new components, it's always comparitvely expensive in the beginning and once supply catches up with demand prices go down. The truth is, almost EVERYONE who currently owns a new card has payed the early-adopter price. MSRP is as HIGH as a card should ever go, not some bargain.
 
Leright said:
some of you are forgetting that the asus nu with 256 megs of ram has an impressive bundle of games and other assorted things that the GTs don't have...and it's clocked higher than the GT.

It's still retarded though....I'd buy a GT over an nu 256 with a bunch of shitty games.
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And it's an ASUS, that alone carries a price premium, ASUS products don't tend to be cheap ever. Add it all up (the ASUS tag, the bundle, the increased & faster ram) and you can see how it quickly approaches the price of a GT. Same way lesser VIVO cards of other models can approach the price of a higher end card in the same line.

Oh and yea, that eVGA FC bundle is sweet, just about the only thing that's not making me bitter when I look at the $425 tag at NewEgg. :p If I'm gonna pay more than the MSRP I want something, anything, extra.
 
Impulse said:
And it's an ASUS, that alone carries a price premium, ASUS products don't tend to be cheap ever. Add it all up (the ASUS tag, the bundle, the increased & faster ram) yada yada yada

I was under the impression that Asus owns Ati anyway...
Quality u can count on
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SereLaw said:
Impulse said:
And it's an ASUS, that alone carries a price premium, ASUS products don't tend to be cheap ever. Add it all up (the ASUS tag, the bundle, the increased & faster ram) yada yada yada

I was under the impression that Asus owns Ati anyway...
Quality u can count on
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no...Asus doesnt own ATI to my knowledge...

and as far as the whole Asus 6800....heres my take. Its got the same clock speeds as a GT. Its got the same 256MB GDDR3 as a GT also. Is just missing four pipes..what does this tell us? It was a GT, 4 pipes failed, they were diabled, and now you have your 256MB 6800, which is the same price as a GT, just not as good.
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When I think of someone spending $400 for just a graphics card, that's not upgradable, and will be replaced with something faster in just 6 months, I don't think "enthusiast" I think RETARD or somebody smoking crack with too much money to blow.
 
@trapine said:
I was just reading over at Beyond3D and bumped into this intresting thread?It looks like rivatuner will let you enable all 16Pipes on 6800NU :eek: Now if this works it will make for one Flatout insane Budget screamer :p
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$300 video card = budget?!?! Friggen rediculous ~ you ought to be able to get a decent video card for $99, and before you call it "budget" it ought to be under $50. :confused:
 
Critofur said:
When I think of someone spending $400 for just a graphics card, that's not upgradable, and will be replaced with something faster in just 6 months, I don't think "enthusiast" I think RETARD or somebody smoking crack with too much money to blow.
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When I think of RETARD I think of people who get their panties in a twist about how OTHER people spend THIER money.

POS $200 vid cards can't run games at 1600x1200. That's my LCDs native resolution. Makes the choice rather easy for me.
 
Critofur said:
When I think of someone spending $400 for just a graphics card, that's not upgradable, and will be replaced with something faster in just 6 months, I don't think "enthusiast" I think RETARD or somebody smoking crack with too much money to blow.
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I cannot think of any reason but jealousy for u to care about it!
Myself and others are in this thread and forum becuase we choose to be..

For the knowledge and sport of it..I am anyway..These people are in a way,Gaming and computer Bro's. I officially slap u with a trout for disrespecting Us.

Grin
 
SereLaw said:
I cannot think of any reason but jealousy for u to care about it!
Myself and others are in this thread and forum becuase we choose to be..

For the knowledge and sport of it..I am anyway..These people are in a way,Gaming and computer Bro's. I officially slap u with a trout for disrespecting Us.

Grin
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awkward silence...
 
SereLaw said:
I cannot think of any reason but jealousy for u to care about it!
Myself and others are in this thread and forum becuase we choose to be..

For the knowledge and sport of it..I am anyway..These people are in a way,Gaming and computer Bro's. I officially slap u with a trout for disrespecting Us.

Grin
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Please pan fry the trout to a crispy golden brown, skin side down, in extra virgin olive oil. Toss some fresh chopped parseley, shallots, and lemon juice in just before it's done, stir that around, then pour it over the trout when you serve it, thank you. :p

People don't usually become rich by wasting money. I say smart people don't buy bleeding edge products because they gouge you on the price, they buy in the "sweet spot" - products that give you high performance for moderate - low price. Like the Pentium 166mmx that overclocked to 200Mhz, the Celeron 300A, the P4 1.6A and 2.4C, and now the Athlon XP-M 35 watt mobile CPU and the if a fair number of 6800 NUs end up overclocking well and/or the extra pipes work, that'd be another smart buy but I still say $240 (what the eVGA 6800 "open box" costs at Micro Center) is a bit steep for a video card.
 
Critofur said:
Please pan fry the trout to a crispy golden brown, skin side down, in extra virgin olive oil. Toss some fresh chopped parseley, shallots, and lemon juice in just before it's done, stir that around, then pour it over the trout when you serve it, thank you. :p

People don't usually become rich by wasting money. I say smart people don't buy bleeding edge products because they gouge you on the price, they buy in the "sweet spot" - products that give you high performance for moderate - low price. Like the Pentium 166mmx that overclocked to 200Mhz, the Celeron 300A, the P4 1.6A and 2.4C, and now the Athlon XP-M 35 watt mobile CPU and the if a fair number of 6800 NUs end up overclocking well and/or the extra pipes work, that'd be another smart buy but I still say $240 (what the eVGA 6800 "open box" costs at Micro Center) is a bit steep for a video card.
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Your opinion of steep keeps on sounding more and more like the opinion of an unemployeed minor :rolleyes: ...just my opinion
 
gepetto said:
so does this mod work ?
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Until the new rivatuner comes out which enables the pipes, your guess is as good as anyone elses. I am getting a GT so I coudltn care less, but it woudl still make for cheap, kick assc ard if it worked.
 
DemonDiablo said:
Your opinion of steep keeps on sounding more and more like the opinion of an unemployeed minor :rolleyes: ...just my opinion
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HEY!...im an unemployed minor and im buying a GT.......i just got to wait until after ozzfest for me to save a little more and buy it :D
 
Critofur said:
People don't usually become rich by wasting money. I say smart people don't buy bleeding edge products because they gouge you on the price, they buy in the "sweet spot" - products that give you high performance for moderate - low price. Like the Pentium 166mmx that overclocked to 200Mhz, the Celeron 300A, the P4 1.6A and 2.4C, and now the Athlon XP-M 35 watt mobile CPU and the if a fair number of 6800 NUs end up overclocking well and/or the extra pipes work, that'd be another smart buy but I still say $240 (what the eVGA 6800 "open box" costs at Micro Center) is a bit steep for a video card.
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Smart people enjoy a top end experience by purchasing high end hardware and selling at the right time.

I would rather buy a $400 card, use it for a year, then sell it for $250-300 than buy a $150 card straightaway. With the former, I have enjoyed top level performance the entire time.
 
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