==How to Flash the BFG6800GT OC into an Ultra in a safe way==

Shorty said:
See... I'm not looking for an Ultra BIOS. I'm looking for a BIOS that will keep the card as showing up as a GeForce 6800GT but with 1.4v and with 400/1.1 speeds.
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Send me PM with your email addy--i have such a file based on the BFG 6800 GT.
 
How do I edit the bios myself? I found a link that lets me change exact values here:

oc6800.gif


It doesnt say how I open and edit the bios anywhere though.

Thanks!
 
Toad21 said:
How do I edit the bios myself? I found a link that lets me change exact values here:

oc6800.gif


It doesnt say how I open and edit the bios anywhere though.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

After installing Hex Workshop and running the program, open your BIOS files with the .rom extension.

Once open, press CTRL+F and search for the values you showed in that pic. Then, you can change the 3 voltage settings for 2D, 2D/3D, and 3D mode. The BIOS that is uploaded in the first post has these voltages:

2D: 1.1 V
2D/3D: 1.4 V
3D: 1.4 V

Normally, the BIOS for the GT has 1.1 V, 1.3 V, and 1.4 V.

After you edit your BIOS, don't forget to run NVCHK.exe to get the correct checksum for yoru BIOS. If you skip this part, you won't be able to flash your card with your newly edited BIOS rom file.
 
My 6800gt was 1.4 v by defualt.

When I set it to 1.5 volt, I was able to increase the GPU mhz by 10, but the 3dmark would crash, therefore it was unstable.

Final Conclusion, adding voltage doesnt even really help.
 
Toad21 said:
My 6800gt was 1.4 v by defualt.

When I set it to 1.5 volt, I was able to increase the GPU mhz by 10, but the 3dmark would crash, therefore it was unstable.

Final Conclusion, adding voltage doesnt even really help.
Click to expand...

Well, for me, setting the 2D/3D mode to 1.4 V and setting the 3D mode to 1.5 V helped me to retain my overclock of 420/1150 while playing Doom 3. John Carmack was correct when he said that this game will make some overclocks unstable.

I had to first downclock to 420MHZ for the core and when that still crashed the game, I flashed my card with a modified BIOS set to 1.5 V as explained above.

Now, Doom 3 runs smoothly at 16x12 with NoAA and 8xAF with Vsync on.
 
I'm assuming that with stock cooling on a eVga 6800GT it wouldnt be a good idea to go to 1.4v? Would 86C full load be too hot to attempt to try the BIOS flash?
 
Neo_Cloud_99 said:
I'm assuming that with stock cooling on a eVga 6800GT it wouldnt be a good idea to go to 1.4v? Would 86C full load be too hot to attempt to try the BIOS flash?
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Hmm, good question. I guess you could try. Once you reach 120C, the card will throttle itself automatically anyways.
 
The link to the non-Leadtek BIOS isnt working for me.... is there somewhere else to get it or can you email it to me or something?

Edit: Nevermind I found a PNY BIOS for stock 400/1100 with 1.4v I flashed and I can reach 425/1120 now, not a big improvement but a little here a little there ... it adds up :)
 
I reflashed my PNY using that BIOS... everything is fine except for when I tell the card I want to Detect Optimal Frequencies. The image becomes all corrupted, and the image will cease... and I'm forced to reboot my computer the old fashioned way. Anybody else using that edited PNY BIOS on a PNY 6800 GT and having this problem? I know it's not temps because I barely hit 80 C on load. I've manually set it on 425/1.14 and I get no artifcats what-so-ever while using rthdribl.
 
douglas25 said:
http://home.graffiti.net/omniextreme/oee10.zip

Omni Extreme Edit.

Utility to modify FX and 6800 bios using a GUI.

Mem and Core adjusts
Voltage Adjustments
Memory Timing Adjustments
More...

Have fun,
Click to expand...

that is an interesting little tool. it reports that my backed up BIOS was supplying 1.4v for 3D. i measured the card and it was only giving about 1.3v. i'll have to give it a shot. :D
 
felix88 said:
that is an interesting little tool. it reports that my backed up BIOS was supplying 1.4v for 3D. i measured the card and it was only giving about 1.3v. i'll have to give it a shot. :D
Click to expand...

You would have had to test it while in a game to test 3d voltage you realize that right? ;p

1.3v is 2d/3d like when your in windows.
 
can anyone send me a way to flash my Card to show up as an ULTRA? That would be sweet!

hit me on AIM please.
 
can someone send me their saved stock (un-altered) PNY 6800 GT bios to my email account below.

I'd really appreciate it. :)
 
ozziegn said:
can someone send me their saved stock (un-altered) PNY 6800 GT bios to my email account below.

I'd really appreciate it. :)
Click to expand...

Sent you the original BIOS from my PNY 6800GT :)
 
Blue Falcon said:
Sent you the original BIOS from my PNY 6800GT :)
Click to expand...

I havent recieved it yet.

which email address did you send it to?
 
ozziegn said:
I havent recieved it yet.

which email address did you send it to?
Click to expand...

*grumbles* Stupid i before e crap. :)

Resent... :D
 
Optimummind said:
Well, for me, setting the 2D/3D mode to 1.4 V and setting the 3D mode to 1.5 V helped me to retain my overclock of 420/1150 while playing Doom 3. John Carmack was correct when he said that this game will make some overclocks unstable.

I had to first downclock to 420MHZ for the core and when that still crashed the game, I flashed my card with a modified BIOS set to 1.5 V as explained above.

Now, Doom 3 runs smoothly at 16x12 with NoAA and 8xAF with Vsync on.
Click to expand...

Ok, I was wrong about the VGPU of 1.5 V increasing my stability. Turned out that the limiting factor for me was my CPU. With the CPU OC'ed to 3.4GHZ from 2.8GHZ, the GT would run stably only up 420MHZ for the core and 1150MHZ for the memory.

At 420MHZ, all games and benchmarks except Warcraft 3 would run perfectly. Even so, it was only when playing War3 on BNET that had a problem. I would suddenly get disconnected from the map and be booted into a channel.

So, i experimented by downclocking my CPU to 3.3GHZ instead. Not only did it cure my BNET dropping annoyance but it also increased my max OC of the GT core.

Here are the final spec:

*CPU: [email protected] (FSB200--->FSB236)
*RAM: 166MHZ-->188MHZ
*VCPU: 1.6 V
*VDDR: 2.8 V

*GPU: -Core: 350MHZ --> 435MHZ
-RAM: 500MHZ --> 575MHZ (1150MHZ)
-VGPU: 2D mode: 1.1 V, 2D/3D mode: 1.4 V (through BIOS flash)
3D mode:1.4 V (default)

I'm not completely sure why downclocking my CPU by 0.1GHZ will increase my GPU overclock to 435MHZ from 420MHZ. Maybe my mobo can't handle the power regulation between supplying powre to an 600MHZ overclocked Prescott and an overclocked GT.
 
Its your power supply.

My 350w power supply blew when i overclocked my 3200+. I was getting 427 stable then. So I took a generic 350w from work and now I can only clock to 420 or 418 stable.

So you see, the power supply is the reason. Does anyone know which voltage effects the video card? Is it the 1.5v, 3.3v, 5v, or 12v?

I believe the processor and video card use the same 1.5v. So that is why the cpu voltage will effect the video card, in my theory ;p.
 
Toad21 said:
So you see, the power supply is the reason. Does anyone know which voltage effects the video card? Is it the 1.5v, 3.3v, 5v, or 12v?
Click to expand...

Voltage from the AGP slot is 3.3v if I remember correctly... but the voltage that the 6800 relies on heavily is the 12v line from the molex connector.
 
Toad21 said:
Its your power supply.

My 350w power supply blew when i overclocked my 3200+. I was getting 427 stable then. So I took a generic 350w from work and now I can only clock to 420 or 418 stable.

So you see, the power supply is the reason. Does anyone know which voltage effects the video card? Is it the 1.5v, 3.3v, 5v, or 12v?

I believe the processor and video card use the same 1.5v. So that is why the cpu voltage will effect the video card, in my theory ;p.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought too at first. To test this theory, I connected an 400W external Antec PSU unit to just the GT's molex connector. Even so, War3 kept dropping me from BNET games when the CPU was overclocked to 3.4GHZ.

I know it has to do something with the power regulatation though because when I had the 9800Pro installed with an overclock of 380-->440MHZ and 340-->360MHZ and the CPU at 3.4GHZ, War3 BNET worked just fine.

Since the GT obviously has higher power requirements compared to the 9800 Pro, it causes instability of my 3.4GHZ CPU.

Since the Antec 400W PSU experiment eliminated the lack of power at the molex connector point, it must do something with my mobo.

BTW, my internal PSU is a Vantec 420W Stealth unit. This is why I think the bottleneck is my mobo's PCB and its power regulation circuitry.

Well, I'm still satisfied though that I could still get a decent OC of 500MHz out of the CPU and a whopping 85MHZ on the GT's core.
 
Ok i noticed 2 key differences between my old power supply and my new power supply.

The old one had 12.90 at the 12v level.

my new one has 12.1. That is the power the molex requires for power right? So that explains my 10mhz drop.

Check your 12v in the bios on both power supplies. Just becuase its 400w doesnt mean its 12v line is good.
 
Toad21 said:
So you see, the power supply is the reason. Does anyone know which voltage effects the video card? Is it the 1.5v, 3.3v, 5v, or 12v?
Click to expand...

most current motherboards draw from the 12v rail and the 6800GT draws from the 5v rail IIRC. not much uses the 3.3v rail anymore(most NF2 board use it to power the RAM) and there is no such thing as a 1.5v rail.

i haven't run into any problems with my PSU, and i've even an optical drive on the same line as my 6800GT.
 
Toad21 said:
uh, the processor runs on the 1.5v rail.
Click to expand...

There is no such thing as 'the 1.5v rail'.

Your motherboard takes 12v, 5v, and 3.3v and distributes it in all kinds of ways - one of them being your CPU's core voltage, which is usually adjustable via the BIOS on most modern motherboards.

I say again just in case you are having problems understanding - YOU HAVE NO 1.5v RAIL.

Heh...
 
The Batman said:
Hm....I can get 435/1150 without a BIOS flash. I don't think I'd like to risk it.
Click to expand...

Seems like you're one of those lucky ones. This flash mod is for those who can't take their core to even 400 using the regular GT BIOS. Some can and some can't. This method is one way to try to extend one's overclock. :D
 
ok i just flashed

what is a safe temp for the card to be running at?

and what are good overclock specs to set it too?
 
Optimummind said:
*DISCLAIMER: This flash will work on all brands of the 6800 GT series cards. In this guide, I'm using my BFG brand 6800GT. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Although the BIOS procedure is relatively simple and quick, not following the directions carefully may result in frying your card if you don't have adequate cooling.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a quick guide to what I did to increase the stability and overclockability of my retail BFG 6800GT OC card. (BTW, this flash guide pertains to other GT cards as well--not just the BFG brand.)

Before the flash, my card could go up 420/1150MHz. At those speeds, all games and benchmarks were stable (Far Cry, 3DMark03, etc). However, it wasn't stable in one game which was very annoying--Warcraft 3. The single player mode would run fine but my BNET connection would keep getting disconnected after 30 minutes or after an hour.

After eliminating the issues of heat or inadequate PSU, I concluded that the issue must've been with the voltage being supplied to the core. My research online revealed that the GT cards receive a voltage between 1.3 V to 1.33 V. The Ultras, on the other hand, receive v1.4 V.

No, I searched for a BIOS rom that would increase the voltage to my card to 1.4 V yet not mess with any core and memory speeds and timings. After I found such a BIOS, I flashed my card with it. As promised, the BIOS didn't alter any core and memory speeds (checked with Rivatuner and Coolbits 2).

Well, how do I know the voltage changed? Although I don't have the physical tools to measure the voltage running across the board, I did notice the improved stability of my card after this flash. My OC has increased to 440MHZ stable and War3 doesn't disconnect me anymore.

Here are the steps I used:

(1) Download the nvFlash utility. I used version v4.42.

(2) DL'ed the specially modified Leadtek GeForce 6800 Ultra with voltage of 1.4 and no changes to core and memory speeds. You can find it here.


==EDIT: For those of you who doesn't like the bootup message from Leadtek, I've included another BIOS rom file. This one is based on my own BFG 6800GT OC card. The core has been changed from 370 to 420MHZ and the RAM from 500 to 550MHZ. The 2D voltage remains at 1.1 V and both the 2D/3D and 3D modes now run at 1.4 V each.
You can download it here:

http://us.f1f.yahoofs.com/bc/9f32cc...+Related/bfg420_1100_14v.rom?bfGthDBB3c9Me5x3

EDIT: The above link doesnt' seem to be working anymore. Send me a PM and I'll you the BIOS file until I can find a different location to upload the file to.

Remember to have good cooling in order to flash to this BIOS.

(3) I put the above 2 files in the same directory of my choice.

(4) Start-->Run-->cmd

(5) Browse to the folder that contains the flash tool and the BIOS rom.

(6) Typed this command in to backup my card's original BIOS:

nvflash442 -b mybios.rom

(The "mybios.rom" portion is arbitrary. You can name the BIOS to whatever you want.)

(7) With my BIOS backed up, I proceeded to flash to the new Ultra BIOS. I typed:

nvflash442 -p -u -2 ultra.rom

(The "ultra.rom" portion of the code is also arbitrary. Whatever the Ultra BIOS name happens to be, you'll be typing in that name.)

(8) The flash process took a while for me--like a 1 minute. When I saw the flash successful confirmation message, I rebooted my computer.

(9) Once I reached the Desktop, WinXP detected my "new" GeForce 6800 Ultra. It asked for drivers so I installed the newest official one--the 61.77.

(10) Installed Coolbits 2 and verified that the clock speeds weren't altered. I slowly OC'ed my card until I reached a satisfactory level.

That's it! It was safe, quick, and too easy to be true.

Just like how I used to flash my 9800 Pro that I sold through this forum, the process is simple and effective as long as you pay careful attention to the details and directions.

Just make sure that you have a sufficient cooling system in place to buffer the extra heat your card will generate after the voltage increase. My idle temp went up from 51 C to 53 C.

I've also noticed that the throttling temp has been reduced from 120 C on the GT to a safer 115 C on this "new Ultra."

Good luck and have fun!!
Click to expand...

there is a MUCH easier way to do this........
 
hehe thats nice to know

even nicer if you posted it

anyway i overclock my core to 418-425 and my mem to 1.13 and all my games seem to freeze

i dont get it

i disabled fast write and it let me overclock to those speeds before i couldnt get past 405

anyone know why its doin this?
 
SiD9095 said:
hehe thats nice to know

even nicer if you posted it
Click to expand...


do this:

first D/L nvflash442 from here.

find the BIOS that you wanna flash it to and put it in your "C:\documents and settings" folder. (I say that folder because thats the folder that opens up when I open my DOS prompt.)

open up the DOS prompt in Windows.

then, you'll wanna back up your current BIOS just in case. to do that you type this:

nvflash442 -b xxxxx.rom (the xxxxxxx will be whatever you wanna name your original BIOS)

once you've saved your current BIOS, you'll then type this:

nvflash442 -p -u -2 xxxxxx.rom (again, the xxxxx will be whatever the name is of the other BIOS that you wanna flash it to.)

the BIOS flashing will take about a minute. once its done, it will give you a confirmation that its done. once thats out of the way, un-install your current nVidia drivers and reboot.

your card will show up as new hardware and you'll reinstall your drivers again.
 
can some of you guys post some links to the BIOSes you've been using that allowed higher OCes? I changed mine and got it up to 425 instead of 415 but I was hoping for higher... lol... yeah I expect alot

Also... on the back of my PSU (OCZ Power Stream) I can lower to raise the voltages to the 12v, 3.3v, and 5v rails... would raising the one that goes to the AGP do anything?
 
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