Unlocking 6800 pipelines with RivaTuner

Bigntasty said:
When I unlock the pipelines I get little purple spots when I run 3dmark05 (are these artifacts?) I closed the pipelines and they went away. Should I just keep them closed? Im glad the pixel shader works though thanks for the thread.
Click to expand...

Sounds like one is messed up alright -- I mean, there is a reason the chip becomes the NU typically, so not everyone can unlock. Well, you MIGHT be able to open just one. Try opening one at a time and see what happens. When you get weird stuff like the blue lines, go back and close the one you just opened. Typically people at least get the vertex shader open, which doesn't help much, but, it sure won't hurt anything.

And jcy0001, yours is a bit on the weird side I'll admit. Basically all I can say is to try running things like rthdribl for long periods of time and see if you notice any artifacts. Set all the options you can as high as they go and raise the size of the window. You want to force it to push your card about as hard as it can. Also, run Doom 3. I noticed no artifacts in 3DMark05 when I ran my GPU at 450 when I had 1.4V for testing, but, in Doom 3 it would crash and artifact until I stepped down to 425. And yes, raising the clock rates heats up the card more -- to a certain extent. I think the rule of thumb is to keep it from going past the upper 70C range on the GPU, but, someone else can feel free to jump in here and correct this. LeadTeks seem to all run cool, and I've never even hit the 60C range, so I never really worried much about temperatures on mine. Anyway, as with all overclocking, there is a slight risk that you can be pushing things too hard and do damage in the long run. It's up to you if you care to risk it. That said, typically just overclocking alone won't tear things up so long as you keep them running cool enough. That's the key. Don't let it get too hot. Oh, and to test for stability, just play games like Doom 3, Far Cry, etc. If it starts artifacting or your system locks up or crashes when it never did before, it's unstable. Lol, that simple. So far as I know, there is no Prime95 style thing for video cards.

Oh, Soverign. Ah... Lol, that shouldn't happen. Oh well, if you get no artifacts, you get no artifacts. Just, be careful, if you got the lines once, there may still be something unstable somewhere.
 
hey thanks nazo will try to get 3dmark05. this may sound likea stupid question but how do you check the temp on the video card? cant seem to find it
 
Should be in the nVidia settings (the advanced part of your display properties.) Near the bottom of the list.
 
hey thanks found the temps. its at 63 C got 3dmark too i think my thingy's not stable it dies in the 2nd cpu test. does that mean that the over clock on my cpu is the one that isnt stable? i clocked this around a year ago its a 2800 running at 3200 speed and used prime 95 to test it and it was stable for 24 hours. thanks again.
 
it died just once when i ran the whole test around the 2nd cpu part. but when i ran it from the cpu test it didnt die but crawled to 2fps then continued to the end of hte test. oh i still have the settings set to 390/820 but in the futuremark info it says vga memory clock is at 2.8 mhz and the vga core clock is 36.7 in both display devices is this normal? oh and the driver whql certified says false?
 
If it dies during the CPU test and not the GPU tests then yeah, your CPU overclock probably isn't too stable.
 
got to run all of 3dmark03 now tried 3dmark05 and the program shuts down with an error before the end of hte first test but the computer doesnt shut down. i place the video card back to stock clock and closed the pixel and vertex that i opened up but still the same it shuts down before the end of the first test. would anyone have an idea what may be causing this?
 
i recently downloaded the newest version of rivatuner and tried overclocking my 6800 NU...rivatuner says the core speed is 348 MHz and the memory is 748MHz (or so) before i do any OCing at all...when i do try to OC it immediately fails with a message about an internal driver error...even when i try to slow it down...is there something i missed or did wrong? any help is appreciated!
 
jcy0001 said:
got to run all of 3dmark03 now tried 3dmark05 and the program shuts down with an error before the end of hte first test but the computer doesnt shut down. i place the video card back to stock clock and closed the pixel and vertex that i opened up but still the same it shuts down before the end of the first test. would anyone have an idea what may be causing this?
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The slowing down thing made me think it was a video card thing (it's supposed to recover from a failure somehow, but, I've seen a recovery only happen and what I got was SEVERE slowdowns.) However, most likely -- especially in light of your more recent tests -- I'm inclined to say definitely test that CPU and memory. Go get Prime95 and run that a while. If it gives you any errors, be very suspicious.

And Aeridore, which version of the drivers ar eyou using? Are they the official ones, or unofficials like Omega? I don't know if this is really the problem, but, it would help.
 
i'm using the nVidia reference drivers version 71.84...the card seems stable under heavy load and doesn't artifact at all...just annoying
 
hi, ran prime 95 for 24hours and all okey did memtest 1 pass only tho and everythings fine too. will run it overnight when i go to bed. is there any other test i can run for video card stability or its just 3dmark? thanks
 
Only video card tests I can find are running Doom 3 (as far as I can tell, the developer who claimed that Doom 3 uses transistors no other game has used before wasn't actually lying as I have noticed Doom 3 seems to require more people to lower their clocks -- on one set of cards actually even lower below stock...) Also, rthdribl if you sit there and watch it for any artifacting and artifact tester 5. Best I can think to do is start up rthdribl, set the settings as high as you can so that FPS drops to something like 9 or so and let that run a good while to warm up every part of the card hopefully, then, close it and quickly open up artifact tester and run a test. The system is by no means perfect, but, they currently have no direct artifact tester program that actually pushes a modern card that I could find. As nearly as I can tell, the artifact tester project is actually abandoned.

Anyway, nothing beats real world tests. Doom 3 and so on. Watch carefully. If it's really bad, you'll start getting crashes and such. Beyond that, well, I don't know if the rthdrbl/artifact tester method truly works as I haven't caught very much at all.
 
Hi ran mem test and no errors after 26 passes. prime95 24 hours stable too. someone told me to try aquamark it it ran okey with a score of 54892. could there be a problem with my setup and compatibility to 3dmark05 or is it really just not good enough. my specs are:
AMD xp2800 @ xp3200
Gigabyte 7NNXP
Corsair Ram 2x256 3200LL +1X512 3200XL Dual channel @ 2-2-2-5
PNY 6800
HEC 450w PSU
Thanks.
 
My unlock worked better when I told RivaTuner under NVStrap: Custom graphics identifier (0040 GeForce 6800 Ultra). My artifacts went away, I think (I've seen artifacting, it randomly goes away, it randomly comes back. GRRRRR...)
UPDATE: If I strap the driver to 6800 GT, the artifacts go away!
 
I have read this entire 7 page forum and so far, it seems the PNY 6800nu, XFX 6800, and the Leadtek 6800nu overclock well so long as you don't bother with the extra vertex shader, which I don't mind considering the price/performance benefit.

I am not interested in purchasing any other brands because I'm not willing to take that chance to find out I can't return the product.

My question is: How can I identify an NU version? I'd like to purchase from NewEgg but I need to know for sure that I'm getting one I can softmod. Could anyone provide a date range for when the unlockable NU's were available? Ideally I could call Newegg and ask when the product came in the warehouse and match it against that date range. I say this because I understand from reading the forum that latter generations of the 6800nu do not unlock.

Alternatively, does anyone know FOR SURE of a place I can purchase a first generation nu that's unlockable.

Lastly, regarding the 6800nu versus the 6800le. One poster mentions that the LE uses less power and can be bios-modded to use more power and apparently has more headroom for overclocking. But I also inferred that the 6800le, when OC'ed, is little better than a 6600GT. Is this correct?

Thanks!
 
geodescent said:
I have read this entire 7 page forum and so far, it seems the PNY 6800nu, XFX 6800, and the Leadtek 6800nu overclock well so long as you don't bother with the extra vertex shader, which I don't mind considering the price/performance benefit.

I am not interested in purchasing any other brands because I'm not willing to take that chance to find out I can't return the product.

My question is: How can I identify an NU version? I'd like to purchase from NewEgg but I need to know for sure that I'm getting one I can softmod. Could anyone provide a date range for when the unlockable NU's were available? Ideally I could call Newegg and ask when the product came in the warehouse and match it against that date range. I say this because I understand from reading the forum that latter generations of the 6800nu do not unlock.

Alternatively, does anyone know FOR SURE of a place I can purchase a first generation nu that's unlockable.

Thanks!
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I got my FXF 6800 today from newegg (ordered Monday for $234). Mine has a mfg date of May 04. Here are my results.

Initial 3dMark05 score with BFG 6600GT - 3197
Initial 3dMark05 score with FXF 6800NU - 3238

Not much improvement but it gets better.

The version of RivaTuner I downloaded today is newer that the one on page 1 but someone mentioned that on page 4 or 5. Right off the bat, the pipes and shader unlock produced artifacts. I couldn't even run 3dMark05. So I turned them off and started oc'ing.

I am/was a little confused about oc'ing in Standard 2D / Low Power 3D / HP 3D. Initially, it wouldn't more up an inch without failing the Test. Finally I moved to the HP 3D page and things started to OC. After just oc'ing to a modest 375/763, my 3DMark05 score shot up to 3600. I tested and rebooted and then started to unlock the pipes/shaders. After unlocking the pipes and running 3dMark05 my score lept up to 3900. I haven't unlocked the shader because of my earlier artifacting, I'm gonna boost the Oc a little and then play around. For now, I'm happy as hell. With a modest OC and the extra Pipes, I've gained 700 points or about 18% and only a $40 extra investment (6800 vs 6600gt).
 
Riva Tuner unlocked 16p 6v without artifacts, on my eVGA 6800 AGP, [purchased in Nov. 04]


I hope I can do the same when I buy my next PCIe card...if there are models out there that still have this potential.
 
asevie, do you nean that you have your card at 16x5? That seems weird to me, like most everyone, the 6th shader unlocks easily, but I get artifacts even in the f@h display :rolleyes: My BFG will run any bench perfectly (with artifacts but numbers dont mention that) at 16x6, 461/911 :D
Generally I just run 451/901 12x6 because I have yet for a game to crash on me, and I only run higher for Far Cry & other games that actually dip below 60 fps every once in a while.

Anyone know if the new version unlocks better? Im still using the New Year Edition, because I use PowerStrip for OCing.
 
Yeah I am sure he means 16x5. That is what my 6800 unlocks too without artifacts or crashing. I can unlock the pipelines but not the vertex shader. You get a performance increase but not quite as large as 16x6. I also found that I could overclock more with it set to 16x5 but that could just be me :)
 
I realize that its been a while since anyone has posted in this thread, but if I am seeing what I think I am this may help explain some of the rest of your problems.

I recently rma'd a dead card to BFG and got back a 6800 OC to replace it which led me to browse this forum looking for an idea of its capabilities. This of course led me to rivatuner (I had been using powerstrip).

I d/l and install riva, and it seems to unlock everything just fine, but I started getting random lockups and crashes, though no artifacts and it was not oc'd. So I go in and reset it to standard, and still got the lockups. By now I'm thinking that I fubared my card and getting worried. But then I remember that I had to install the strap to unlock the pipes, so I go in and uninstall the nvstrap and the crashes go away!

Am I reading this right that riva tuner was giving me the problems, or did I not do something right? It said I was running x16,x6 no problem. By the way, I have the newest version of riva 15.5

Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys
 
Just got a eVGA 6800NU off of NegEgg and was thinking about trying to unlock the pipes and vertex shaders.

What I am wondering is what kind of game performances, namely FPS, am I going to see?

Say for example in WoW?

Thanks
 
I have a BFG 6800 OC. I was able to unlock the vertex shader but not the extra 4 pixel pipelines. I would get artifacts in Doom 3 and Farcry (with HDR) would go completely blank in 3D mode.

This card is a fairly good overclocker, so far running at 375/800. I am not sure what the limit is.
 
I managed to unlock the pipelines and the extra vertex processor on my AGP Gigabyte 6800, but I do get some glitching, so I turned off the VP and left the pipes.

There is very little glitching, but from what I observed it happens only in direct x video and not opengl games [eg. doom3 runs perfect but halflife 2 has some minor glitches]. The card is running cool [large copperpipe with a blowhole and good case exhaust] and its not overclocked.

Could this be a direct x issue? For now I've switched back to the standard defaults. I'm happy with that :).

The rest of my system is: 2.4C P4 @ 3Ghz, 2GB of Ram, Abit IC-7G mainboard, antec 400W PS if that helps.

As for the differences, 12x5 = 8541 3dmark03, 16x5=9268 3dmark03, so a modest improvement right there.

*EDIT*

I switched back to 12x5. Still great performance compared to my old FX 5600.

Basically all my games had some degree of glitching except for doom3.
 
Zovreign said:
I managed to unlock the pipelines and the extra vertex processor on my AGP Gigabyte 6800, but I do get some glitching, so I turned off the VP and left the pipes.

There is very little glitching, but from what I observed it happens only in direct x video and not opengl games [eg. doom3 runs perfect but halflife 2 has some minor glitches]. The card is running cool [large copperpipe with a blowhole and good case exhaust] and its not overclocked.

Could this be a direct x issue? For now I've switched back to the standard defaults. I'm happy with that :).

The rest of my system is: 2.4C P4 @ 3Ghz, 2GB of Ram, Abit IC-7G mainboard, antec 400W PS if that helps.

As for the differences, 12x5 = 8541 3dmark03, 16x5=9268 3dmark03, so a modest improvement right there.

*EDIT*

I switched back to 12x5. Still great performance compared to my old FX 5600.

Basically all my games had some degree of glitching except for doom3.
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just overclock the puppy! :D
 
I just got my PNY 6800 yesterday in from newegg, got it all unlocked to 16x6 and a decent overclock for the time being. 397 / 844. I am running an external power supply for one hard drive and the graphics card so I know it is getting enough power.

pny6800.JPG


My Comp stats are as follows-

Crappy MS-6701 motherboard.
P4 2.66 533 FSB @ stock
1 GB ddr2700 @ stock
WD 80GB SE
PNY 6800

I am scoring 9000 in 3dmark03, but can't break 2000 in 3dmark05.. is my computer bottlenecking the graphics card that badly?
 
Fleat said:
I am scoring 9000 in 3dmark03, but can't break 2000 in 3dmark05.. is my computer bottlenecking the graphics card that badly?
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Hm, I'd say hitting 2000 in 05 is pretty bad. My rig in sig, hits for nearly 4000. And around 10,000 something in 03. Nothing is Oc'ed on mine.
 
i'm running the latest version of rivatuner and am using forceware 71.89. anyways i unlocked the extra pipes and vertex shader, but everytime i tried to play a video in wmp i would get some black artifacts and i would get red and green flashing colors in cs source. so i tried seeing what i could run and it seemed like the extra pipes cause the problems. so basically at 12x6 everything runs fine, but not at 16x6. does this mean all hope is gone for unlocking the pipes or is there anything else i should try out? also is there any gain from my stock settings if i just have an extra vertex unlocked?
 
o0akoni0o said:
i'm running the latest version of rivatuner and am using forceware 71.89. anyways i unlocked the extra pipes and vertex shader, but everytime i tried to play a video in wmp i would get some black artifacts and i would get red and green flashing colors in cs source. so i tried seeing what i could run and it seemed like the extra pipes cause the problems. so basically at 12x6 everything runs fine, but not at 16x6. does this mean all hope is gone for unlocking the pipes or is there anything else i should try out? also is there any gain from my stock settings if i just have an extra vertex unlocked?
Click to expand...


All hope is gone for you my friend :(
 
Okay, I changed some stuff around and now I am running..

Abit IS7 Mobo
P4 2.6C @ 2.86 for now
1 GB OCZ ddr3200 @ 5:4
WD 80GB SE
PNY 6800 unlocked to 16/6 oc'ed to 397 / 844

I am now getting 4500 in 3dmark 05 easily and I know I can push the cpu a lot further. I still don't know what in my old rig was bottlenecking me so badly though.
 
I bought a 6800 AGP refurb from newegg (Apollo brand, $160 shipped). Installed it, installed latest drivers, everything seemed fine. Ran 3dmark05, things were good. Followed the steps in the first post to unlock. Seemed to be ok with everything unlocked. Ran 3dmark05 again to compare - partway through, cut to black screen (as in monitor shut off from no signal).

Hard restart, see corruption in bios check, corruption in "loading windows" screen, and then cut to black again - won't go into windows.

Was able to get into safe mode, but corruption there too. Uninstalled RT and drivers. Reboot, still corruption everywhere, but I get into XP again. If I try to reinstall drivers, it cuts to black part way through and have to go into safe mode and remove them again.

Is there anything else I can do, or is it dead? At the moment I've pulled it and am running my 9800pro again...

(in case you care, the computer is a compaq sr1010z, A64 3400+, 160gig SATA, 1 gig ram (2x512), DL dvd burner, old 40gig IDE drive as secondary to run XP64 at some point in the future.)

I'm gonna try the 6800 in another computer tonight just to rule out a power issue, but I'm not too hopeful...
 
by what means are you guys flashing your 6800 nu for higher voltage? what bios? mine flashes fine, but voltage doesnt seem to change.
 
it seems my evga 6800 PCI-e doesnt have the ability to open extra pipelines.
even using rivatuner, where it says 12x1, and going to low level...
checking "allow enabling hardware masked units"
there are no pipelines that say "yes"
am i missing something?
 
I sent this to Kckazdude in a PM, but figured I should post it here to see if anyone has the answer also...

I followed the instructions step by step and picture to picture, yet when I click Customize and enter the Custom Graphics Processor Configuration it says 16x1,6vp after Def:, Cur:, and Tgt:. when the instruction's picture has 12x1,5vp under Def:. Also, mine is not showing any hardware masks.

This is the card I'm using.
77.72 drivers installed.
Using RivaTuner20RC156.

Edit: picture of what I'm talking about.
 
AMD 3500+ Winchester
ASUS A8V DELUXE Socket 939 VIA K8T800 Pro
OCZ Enhanced Latency 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Maxtor DiamondMax 200GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133
XFX Geforce 6800 128MB 256-bit DDR AGP unlocked to 256 bit NV40 (A1,16x1,6VP), oc'ed to 400 / 800

I am getting 4000 in 3dmark 05
 
I used forceware 77.72 and RT15.6 to unlock another virtex shader. I couldn't get the pixel pipeline to run stable. When I restarted to windows with 16 pixel pipelines the whole screen would flash in and out from black to blue and it was really glitchy. Reguardless I went from 3115 in 3dmark05 to 3678! That doesn't make any sense to me that 1 virtex shader would boost my score by 500, but i'm not complaining. I will wait to see if an overclock is possible once i get my vf700-cu and some ocz copper memory heatsinks.
 
MotoxXx said:
I followed the instructions step by step and picture to picture, yet when I click Customize and enter the Custom Graphics Processor Configuration it says 16x1,6vp after Def:, Cur:, and Tgt:. when the instruction's picture has 12x1,5vp under Def:. Also, mine is not showing any hardware masks....]
Click to expand...

You have to restart windows for the settings to take effect.
The settings you select will show in the window but won't be effective until you RESTART.
I've also noticed that if you go into standby or hibernate the settings will be lost and not be effective until you restart windows again.....

I hope I did not misunderstand your question.
But remember in earlier posts in this thread it only works with older cards.
I posted a message with a link that explained the details.
 
Well, as it turns out, I do indeed have some time
to read this thread.

But I still would like to know, would it be worth it to
spend $30 more dollars for the regular 6800? Or is
the 6800LE enough?

js
 
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