Why bother OC'ing 6800 GT's?

K

Krelm

n00b
Joined
Aug 26, 2004
Messages
52
Hello.

First, im not having a go at anyone in this post, im just curious.

Im gonna be purchasing my BFG 6800 GT/OC soon, yet im wondering why does everyone overclock them when they are more than capable of running anything with their default settings.

I understand people like to get a FPS boost, but is it REALLY worth the effort and cooling mods just to get an increase in FPS invisible to the naked eye?

Thanks
 
No, they don't NEED to, but they enjoy it because of the performance gains. Yes, if you overclock a GT to Ultra speeds, you get Ultra performance. It's not necessary, because the GT is a kickass card, but a lot of people like it, just because you can gain another level of AA performance, or squeeze 5-8 FPS out of it. If you are nervous about frying something, or like keeping warranties, since the BFG GT has a lifetime warranty, we won't hate you too much ;) if you don't overclock it. It's simply a personal decision.

However, if you decide to overclock, there are lots of great threads about how to install aftermarket coolers, how to overclock safely, and the best programs to use to overclock your GT. Good Luck!
 
I am getting a VGA Silencer NV5 soon. I am modding my card not so much to get better performance, but instead to be able to tweak it, and see how the cooling affects the temperatures and capabilities of the RAM and GPU to run at higher frequencies.

I am an experimentalist like many people here, and we tweak because we want to see what the limits are.

The irony is that video cards that actually need overclocking most people here would never touch with a ten foot pole.
 
well... If you want to play hl2 with this card you have to... because Nvidia cards sucks hard with this game...
 
I haven't felt the need to OC my 6800 GT at all. It's fast enough and it's not worth running it out of spec just for a couple extra frames.
 
I overclock it because I can. You'd be hard pressed in the "real world" (playing games) to tell the difference between a GT at stock and a GT@Ultra speeds.
 
pny verto 6800 GT rev1
changed bios to have all volts at 1.4 using nibitor

350 gpu -> 460 gpu
1000 mem -> 1200 mem

nuff said.
 
SoLiD_MasteR said:
well... If you want to play hl2 with this card you have to... because Nvidia cards sucks hard with this game...
Click to expand...
From what benchmarks I've read, the nVidia cards perform as well, if not better than their ATI counterparts. (Pricewise)
 
Krelm said:
Hello.

why does everyone overclock them when they are more than capable of running anything with their default settings.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Because they aren't capable of running anything with their default settings...
 
SoLiD_MasteR said:
well... If you want to play hl2 with this card you have to... because Nvidia cards sucks hard with this game...
Click to expand...

I find that very hard to believe...especially when I can play HL2 on my system with an overclocked 9600xt at 1280x960 (or whatever res their 1280 is...I think x960 maybe?) with all the options on high in the game, 16xAF, and 2xAA (I know...whoop de doo on the 2xAA, but with HL2...even 2xAA is a HUGE improvement) and I average around 50fps, most I've seen is high 70's and dips to mid 30's with lots of water reflections...which to me is completely playable.
 
SoLiD_MasteR said:
well... If you want to play hl2 with this card you have to... because Nvidia cards sucks hard with this game...
Click to expand...

Yes, 70-80 FPS with everything maxed sucks. And you don't need to relearn grade school English.
 
Jerunk said:
idiot.
Click to expand...

We prefer "intellectually challenged". I personally don't plan on OCing my video card until its a half dozen months old or so. You can get a few extra months out of the things with small OCs.

-zac
 
well for some reason, axis & allies is a big laggy in some situations, especially when moving the screen around. the higher the OC, the smoother the movement, and faster the game runs. like, running 425/1100 every 2 seconds IRL is about 3/4 to 1 second in game, while running 450-460/1200 its more around 1 sec IRL = around 1.25 seconds in game. me likes faster stuff lol
 
The stupid glitch in the game seems to be on ATI or Nvidia.. I hope they patch this thing up.
 
SoLiD_MasteR said:
well... If you want to play hl2 with this card you have to... because Nvidia cards sucks hard with this game...
Click to expand...


ROFLMAO, I don't know what facts you are basing this on...but here's a fact for you.

I just got my new system running(in sig) and installed 66.81 Forceware drivers, installed Half Life 2, cranked all settings to max and it runs Flawless and is gorgeous to boot. The gorgeous part is my opinion, the flawless part is a FACT. So what facts are you basing your Opinion on that the Nvidia card sucks with HL2?
 
SoLiD_MasteR said:
well... If you want to play hl2 with this card you have to... because Nvidia cards sucks hard with this game...
Click to expand...

Whatever. I run HL2 at 1600x1200 with 4xAA and 8XAF with no problems. It's perfectly smooth.

BTW my X800Pro didn't do any better of a job at it either.
 
The answer is they don't need to.
Click to expand...

Just like we don't NEED fancy cases with windows and lights. Just like we don't NEED gigantics hunks of copper with fans that sound like jet engines on them.
But DAMN is it fun anyways! :D
If you're in this forum then its not that you need to overclock something out of necessity. You NEED to overclock it out of compulsion and desire...
 
I overclock for the performance gain.

I like to think of it this way: Say you are playing a game and you are using the stock settings and theres one part of the game where you get 20fps. When overclocking to ultra speeds you can gain 5 to 10 fps and end up with around 30fps. It may not be much but it can cause a considerable visual difference in the game.
 
I bought a 9800 Pro this summer as an upgrade for my TI4600 that was growing a little old and I overclocked it for a while but then I stopped worrying about that extra 5%. Maybe someday I'll get back in the mood of messing around with things but for now I just like having a PC that's super stable and runs most things quite well.
 
just think of all the hobbyists who put thousands of dollars on street cars so they can do extraordinary 0-60 and top speeds

do they need to do that? No,

Will they ever need it? Prolly not.

A lot of their cars aren't even street legal after their mods but they still do it.

It's not about the FPS.

It's fun.

Think of Tim the Tool Man Tailor and how he always tries to put more power into things. It's kinda like that.
 
The real answer is they don't need to. And I agree with you fully, look at my rig. It's pretty minimalistic, nothing special. Just enough to get by and last a few years.

Overclocking is overrated IMO. Spend extra time tinkering with parts trying to get them to run 5% faster. Not to mention spending a wad of cash on cooling equipment, when in reality you probably could've put that money together and got a 6800ultra instead. Well maybe not I guess, and you can keep the cooling for next generation too. So maybe that point isn't too great. But seriously if you're only getting a 5% speed increase it's not worth it IMO.

I can see where people are coming from trying to OC, especially here at the [H]. Where multitudes of people are either hardcore geeks, or hardcore geek posers. I myself am content with my system, no need to pretend that I own an FX53, and two 6800GT's in SLI.
 
Mojo said:
The real answer is they don't need to. And I agree with you fully, look at my rig. It's pretty minimalistic, nothing special. Just enough to get by and last a few years.

Overclocking is overrated IMO. Spend extra time tinkering with parts trying to get them to run 5% faster. Not to mention spending a wad of cash on cooling equipment, when in reality you probably could've put that money together and got a 6800ultra instead. Well maybe not I guess, and you can keep the cooling for next generation too. So maybe that point isn't too great. But seriously if you're only getting a 5% speed increase it's not worth it IMO.

I can see where people are coming from trying to OC, especially here at the [H]. Where multitudes of people are either hardcore geeks, or hardcore geek posers. I myself am content with my system, no need to pretend that I own an FX53, and two 6800GT's in SLI.
Click to expand...

News flash, you dont need to spend lots of time, buy any parts, or be intelligent to overclock a card.

You say you have no need to pretend to own something to impress people, yet have a sig with detailed system specs...
 
After overclocking my 6800 GT to Ultra speeds (415 Core/1.15 Ghz Memory), my 3dMark03 score went up by about 800 points. From 11200 (approx.) to12,000 (approx.)

And overclocking and taking something above its normal specifications is just fun for me. :D

Its like- Why would someone buy the XT PE, instead of the XT and spend an extra $100 to see that small gaming performance increase? But people still go for the XT PE, thats why they are always out of stock.
 
Lord of Shadows said:
News flash, you dont need to spend lots of time, buy any parts, or be intelligent to overclock a card.

You say you have no need to pretend to own something to impress people, yet have a sig with detailed system specs...
Click to expand...


Really shows how much you know...people put detailed system specs in their signature not to impress people...this is a help forum..where you come to get help on troubleshooting your PC. Do I feel like typing out my system specs 20 times when I need help? No.

Putting your system specs in your sig is so you don't have to type it out each time have a question.

When techs want to help someone the first question they ask is... "What system are you running?"

Booooyaaa
 
I got my GT and i was like ok then. "I've got a card that can do ultra speeds, why not?" i said to myself. Same with my P4 "3.0ghz is nice, but 3.3 or 3.75 would be nicer". It's just for fun and that little bit more speed. But its summer in Aus and its farkin hot (38c today) so i had to go back to stock clock speeds on my P4 and i only overclock gfx when playing games :(
 
speaking of OCing GT's.... i taught mine a new trick!!

w00t.JPG
 
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