Modded my 6800GT's BIOS.....happy as Heck

cornelious0_0 said:
As the name implies, I just finished modding my 6800GT's BIOS, and it couldn't have been easier. There are a few things you can accomplish by going through the general process I've outlined below.....and I'll distinguish between them after the "step by step". What I was going after was an increase to my cards core voltage, to try and get a little more OC out of my baby before I did my cooling mods. By default the 6800GT carries a core voltage of 1.3v.....whereas the Ultra comes with a stock voltage of 1.4v.....guess where I'm going with this. ;)

*** Before I go any farther let me just say that while this mod WAS extremely simple.....nothing is gauranteed, and I have still heard of/seen things go wrong with something this straight forward. I will take no responsibility for anything that happens as a result of anyone trying the below mod(s) and I urge you to proceed at your own risk. ***

That being said, here's what I just went through to get my core running at 1.4v:

1) Download nVflash here.
2) Extract nvflash and put the contents on a floppy disk. Use a bootdisk on startup and when you're at the command prompt with the nvflash disk in the drive type "a:\nvflash -b backup original.rom" without the quotes......this will backup your cards current BIOS to disk, we'll work with this in a second.
3) Get back on the net and download OmniExtremeEdit FX v1.5.
4) Next we'll be using OmniExtremeEdit to open the ROM file on the floppy, which is your cards factory BIOS.....make a backup copy of the original BIOS if you'd like.
5) Load OmniExtremeEdit and load up the ROM file you saved......on the left hand side of the screen where it says "VGPU" change the 3D value to 1.4v.
6) Save the moddified BIOS with a simple name like "modded.rom" or something you can remember and copy it to the floppy disk with nvflash.
7) Go back through your boot sequence and get to the command prompt again.....this time type "a:\nvflash modded.rom" (if you named your saved BIOS something else, simply insert your filename instead of "modded".
8) Confirm the flash, and it'll let you know when it's done.....restart your comp, and when you boot up, your card will be running at a 3D voltage of 1.4v. What this means is that when you run over to overclock the "3D clock" on your card, you SHOULD have some extra headroom to work with.

A good way to quickly check if the mod worked is to do an Auto-Detect of your clock rates in Coolbits, hopefully you'll be pleasently surprised. Personally, my card went from a stock Auto Detect of 366/1025 all the way up to an Auto Detect of 425/1150.....and I couldnt be happier.

I found this a LOT easier then downloading a BIOS for my card that was already set with the voltages I wanted, and there are actually a couple other things you can use this same procedure to accomplish.

- During step 5, instead of altering the VGPU, look farther to the right where it says "Clock Rates"
- If you are 110% sure that you already have a certain overclock on your card nailed down, you can enter it into the 3D fields.....essentially making your desired numbers into your new stock 3D clock speeds.
- The same thing can be done to alter the 2D clock, but I have yet to really find a use for this.

As I said, these mods are not going to be for everyone, but those of you who come away with a successfull "run" here should be more then pleased, just as I was.

I strongly urge people who do NOT have water cooling not to go above 1.4v on the GPU, jumping to 1.5v seems to raise even idle temps by about 10C.....putting that much more load on that poor little aluminum cooler. Anyone running an extravagent air cooler or h2O on their GT's might want to try out 1.5v to see how much more they gain out of it.....but as I said before, proceed with caution.

I hope that this was at least a little helpfull or informative for anyone who might have been thinking about this, and I'm proud to be here as living proof that even someone who hasn't had very much luck modding video cards can walk away from this with a smile on their face. :D
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i did this mod on m aVGA and took it too [email protected] totaly stable
 
sam375 said:
What is your max 3DMark run? Link please :D
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well you would say what was it......that was my AGP system which is no longer functional i parted it out the card is fs in the fx part of the forum.......when i had it with my a8v deluxe 1gb corsair 2-2-2-5,3500+(w/ no OCing) 36gb raptor w/ winXPpro and the card itself (obviously)i got 13k just about even free version so i dont have link ......but i might have a screen shot on an other forum i belonged to befor ill look
 
incomudro said:
well you would say what was it......that was my AGP system which is no longer functional i parted it out the card is fs in the fx part of the forum.......when i had it with my a8v deluxe 1gb corsair 2-2-2-5,3500+(w/ no OCing) 36gb raptor w/ winXPpro and the card itself (obviously)i got 13k just about even free version so i dont have link ......but i might have a screen shot on an other forum i belonged to befor ill look
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Im not doubting your claim, Id just like to compare scores since 440 is a very good oc. What was your max in 3Dmark05?
 
sam375 said:
Im not doubting your claim, Id just like to compare scores since 440 is a very good oc. What was your max in 3Dmark05?
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my 05 wasent so pretty to say the least something around 3.5k(i think the CPU was holding me back)
 
Wow, nice guide. Just got my PNY 6800GT yesterday and immediately voided the warranty :p. I AS5'd the RAM and GPU cooler and I also lapped the GPU cooler to a 1000grit finish. Idle temps were 61C, but when I started overclocking they went down to 50C at idle, must be a driver issue? :confused: . Anyway, at 1.3v I got up to 421/1145 stable (after being in Doom 3 at 440/1170, then tried 3dMark05, which crashed at anything over 425/1150). 1.4v didn't help me at all, so I went back to 1.3v. I'm guessing it's my cooling that's the problem? I might find a nice copper 1U HSF and then cut it to the shape of the stock aluminum one and see if that helps. Anyway, great guide, easy to understand, comforted a complete flashing newbie such as myself :p
 
Mr. K6 said:
Wow, nice guide. Just got my PNY 6800GT yesterday and immediately voided the warranty :p. I AS5'd the RAM and GPU cooler and I also lapped the GPU cooler to a 1000grit finish. Idle temps were 61C, but when I started overclocking they went down to 50C at idle, must be a driver issue? :confused: . Anyway, at 1.3v I got up to 421/1145 stable (after being in Doom 3 at 440/1170, then tried 3dMark05, which crashed at anything over 425/1150). 1.4v didn't help me at all, so I went back to 1.3v. I'm guessing it's my cooling that's the problem? I might find a nice copper 1U HSF and then cut it to the shape of the stock aluminum one and see if that helps. Anyway, great guide, easy to understand, comforted a complete flashing newbie such as myself :p
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I also own a PNY. Right now youre dealing with a cooling issue. If you get some better cooling on that card you can hit 440 easy on stock voltage, but dont execpt the card to like higher voltage.
 
Hmm... well using that real time lighting program, and even after the lapping and AS5 I get load temps of 76C; seems high to me, even for a GPU :eek: . I'm thinking of grabbing Dynatron 1U copper solution, cutting it to size, and drilling the screw holes. The fan in the 6800GT seems to deliver plent of air, it's just that the puny aluminum heatsink that's the problem :(
 
What's the fun in buying something pre-made? :confused: :p
Nah, I have an idea of what I'm going to make involving a little something something from dynatron, thread on that soon :D
 
Can someone help me? Using Coolbits, my card autodetect is 396/1100 before the mod. After the mod, my card still autodetects at ard the same speeds. I followed all the steps and tried many times, but there's still no difference.

So is there anyone else who experienced this?
 
beyondwatt said:
Can someone help me? Using Coolbits, my card autodetect is 396/1100 before the mod. After the mod, my card still autodetects at ard the same speeds. I followed all the steps and tried many times, but there's still no difference.

So is there anyone else who experienced this?
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umm have you tried pushing it futher yuor self..the auto crap, is well... crap.
 
beyondwatt said:
No diff, it wont go above 410...
I know not all card o/c well, but...
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one of my PCIe GT's maxed at 425 at 1.3 and 1.4v. sometimes the vcore increase just doesnt do anything.
 
I'm still unable to get my eVga 6800 GT PCI-E to 1.4v

The utilities mentioned in this & the other flashing how-to post come up with an "unknown" vendor and even if I dont change anything & just reflash after saving as vendor = "unknown" its all fubar & I have to re-flash to the oem save. Not sure why eVga comes up as Unknown but it does.

I'd really like to try out 1.4v soon & see how far I can push the card & keep it 100% stable & no artifacts.

Just need to figure out what vendor ID I can use since eVga isn't on the list. Maybe nVidia?
 
Mtnduey said:
I'm still unable to get my eVga 6800 GT PCI-E to 1.4v

The utilities mentioned in this & the other flashing how-to post come up with an "unknown" vendor and even if I dont change anything & just reflash after saving as vendor = "unknown" its all fubar & I have to re-flash to the oem save. Not sure why eVga comes up as Unknown but it does.

I'd really like to try out 1.4v soon & see how far I can push the card & keep it 100% stable & no artifacts.

Just need to figure out what vendor ID I can use since eVga isn't on the list. Maybe nVidia?
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Vendor ID dosnt matter dude... Have you tried googleing for a BIOS for youre Evga Card thats pre modded? Theres a dude that build a entire site for BIOS files... cant think of it off the top of my head...
 
I(illa Bee said:
Vendor ID dosnt matter dude... Have you tried googleing for a BIOS for youre Evga Card thats pre modded? Theres a dude that build a entire site for BIOS files... cant think of it off the top of my head...
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mvktech.net
 
Update:

I took one of my 1U Socket 462 Heatsinks (copper) and made a new heatsink for the vid card.

Pre-heatsink I was at 375/1.05ghz Max OC w/o Artifacts

Post-heatsink I was at 395/1.07ghz Max OC w/o Artifacts

That was still using the OEM Bios @ 1.3v

Now was time to try for 1.4v

I had tried the Rev 2 bios but it had a subvendor mismatch so it didnt work. So I decided just to extract my current bios & mod it, and it worked just fine, but I had to keep the vendor as "unknown" for my eVga 6800 GT.

So now I'm at 1.4v and the temps havn't really changed much. I was able to get a pretty decent jump in OC tho.

I'm now at 416/1.13ghz 100% stable, No Artifacts

I could probably get more out of it, but I'm quite pleased with it as is.
 
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