• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

XFX 6800NU speed problems help

T

TeknoZX

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Messages
111
I posted this in the nvidia flavor section but it doesn't seem to be getting too many views. I would really like some help or insight to this problem. Sorry for posting here, sorta like a duplicate but if it's looked down on, please delete this thread and I'll never do it again. Here's are my posts so far.



Alright. Here's the low down.
XFX 6800NU unlocked perfect with ZERO artifacts. NV5 Silencer rev. 2.
Plenty of airflow in the case.
Stock speeds are 325/750
Using Powerstrip to overclock
Using Xtreme G Forceware 76.50HD
Also tried using XG Force 76.44HD, WHQL 71.89, WHQL 76.44, all the same.

Last week, I overclocked to 390/830. Seemed fine. Loaded up 3dmark 05 and ran well. 4638. Respectable score. I thought maybe a little boost in the overclock might help it out. Okay. Time to play. 395/830. Score goes down to 3000's. WTF? Check settings, pipelines/shader, temps, and clock speeds. Temp was about 52-53 deg C. Not so bad. Well behold threshold of 127C so ok..try again....same thing..wtf? Okay. let's try locking up the pipes and shader and test. Now I started using AquaMark3 since it's faster. Comparitively, my GFX score should be around 9400+ for a 6800NU unlocked with some oc'ing. I checked other people's submissions of their scores with similar specs to mine. Okay, 9400+ is about normal so let's see what goes on.

Bone stock = ~8000
12/5 OC'd = ~8300
16/6 stock = ~8500
16/6 OC'd = ~6000
...now something's not right..
evey time I check temps right after, it says around 52-53C

Ok..fluke? try again.
16/6 370/800 = ~9000
ok..that's more like it. Now let's see if I can get back to what I was last week.
16/6 390/830 = ~7000
wtf...ok...
16/6 370/800 = ~6000
ok..now WTF..it did great 2 tries ago and now it's back to crap? Temps? Overworked? Check temps...52-53C

Now wtf...
Anyone have any ideas? I mean..c'mon this makes NO sense!!! I installed the NV5 just fine but...omg, I've been tweaking and testing and trying for the past 6 hours..Never was I able to replicate the performance I had last week. Also by the looks of the AquaMark3 and 3dmark 05 scores, it seems that my performance last week was on par...but now...my eyes are about to dry out from all this bs..one word..

HELP!!!

I don't think it's Rivatuner that's throttling. I tried using Rivatuner's hardware monitor. During a run of Aquamark3, the core speed went up from 325 to 390 and back down to 325 when I exited to windows. Memory speed stayed at a constant 830. Core VID stays at 1 always. Temp goes up to 53C while running Aquamark and drops to around 48C when done. Ambient temp stays at around 37C constantly. Give or take a few C.

Now seriously..how the hell does this make sense? Stock speed gets good score. OC gets bad score. Then back to stock gets even worse score? This is just frustrating the hell out of me and I have absolutely NO clue what's going on here.

Thanks.

Well, according to Nibitor and the my card's BIOS, a VID of 1 means 1.2V. Since Rivetuner's monitor tells me that the VID is a constant 1, whether I'm in windows or running aquamark, I think that the voltage is ok. 1.2V constant seems alright to me. Anything else?

Thanks.

Well, I shut down everything I could via taskmanager. The only ones left on were processes that I couldn't terminate or those vital to running windows. I think I figured one thing out. Whenever I run Aquamark3, if I see like a little hiccup anywhere in the program, like the program pauses and skips a beat, the score comes out bad. I don't know what it is exactly..doesn't seem to be a throttling problem of any kind because the Rivatuner monitor gives me constant stats.
 
I have the same card as you. I have unlocked the pipes, but have done no overclocking. I have a Leadtek 6200 also. This card has all the pipes unlocked to make it a 6600. If I do a mild core overclock to 375 from 300, my 3dm03 scores jump by almost 900 pts. I push the core to 400 and then lose 300 pts. Have you tried benchmarking actual games when overclocked? See how it does then. I do not trust synthetic benchmarks.
 
OCing higher doesn't always mean better performance, you saw the performance drop in numbers because the heat from the extra OC actually impeded your performance. Common thing to happen, just find the maximum OC before it starts to fall lower.

~Adam
 
Well... When its benchmarking, do u see any long pauses like 1-3 secounds? In that case your scorse will plumit because 3dmark05 didnot record any FPS in that 1-3 secounds. My system did this when I overclocked my 6800GT. To fix it i bought a new powersuply to get my 12 volt rail up to about 26 amps... It did the trick. I got about 500 points better with my new psu and a good overclock.

PhatAJ
 
That idea about the power supply sound like it could be right. But how could overclocking just a bit more drain that much more power? Also, I don't think it's an issue with heat. I have an NV5 silencer and temps are pretty much 48-55C whenever I'm idle and running Aquamark3 and 3dmark05.

Intel 2.4C@3.25
1GB Geil Ultra Platinum
Pioneer 105 DVD-RW
LiteON 52x CD-RW
Floppy
Maxtor 200GB
Western Digital 160GB
SB Audigy
6 80mm Case fans

That's my computer. It's running on a Enermax 365watt power supply. It's been sufficient for so long. Maybe overclocking my 6800 from 380mhz core to 390mhz core draws just enough power to break the psu's back?
 
TeknoZX said:
That's my computer. It's running on a Enermax 365watt power supply. It's been sufficient for so long. Maybe overclocking my 6800 from 380mhz core to 390mhz core draws just enough power to break the psu's back?
Click to expand...

Enermax 365 should be more than enuf, i got cheap ass psu and also 6800nu fully unlocked and oced (380/880), no problems wif benchmark score. Have you tried running actual game benchmark like doom 3 for instance?
 
highly unlikely that the problem is with chipset drivers. Intel 865PE. Has been more solid than a rock for the past few years and should still be. I dunno, there must be SOMEONE who has some insight into this problem...
 
Sorry Cleanslate but I think you're wrong. I doubt that heat is a problem. I hear of people having their cards go up to 70C when under load and mine barely breaks 50C under load. Ok it's just a plain old 6800 but still. I slapped the NV Silencer 5 on there to boot. I think that's adequate cooling. Plus with 3 80mm intake fans and 3 80mm exhaust fans, the ambient temp in my case stays well below 40C.

Also the thing is,it doesn't seem like the card is being overclocked when I set it higher. Like I said before, I notice a slight hiccup when running Aquamark3. In the menu or the load screen, if there is any slight hiccup, I will get a lower score. What does this hiccup mean? Throttling or some sort? perhaps but Rivatuner tells me the voltages and core/mem speeds are just as I set them. So what's the deal? I'll take insufficient power as the reason behind this over heat...But thanks for the input.
 
Even at 50 degrees the core could (by some stretch of the imagination) have reached its limit for heat BUT you are probably right in that it's just your power supply.

~Adam
 
Actually, this type of problem is caused by signal degradation within the circuitry you are trying to overclock, most likely your GPU core. At some point the increased frequencies of your overclock cause errors, and while these may not cause artifacts, they slow down the rendering of the image. The only solution is overvolting your GPU. On a 6800nu you can flash the bios and select a higher core voltage in your new bios image. This may help to resolve the problem. However, if you are having heat issues now, they will only worsen with higher voltages.
 
Thanks for the input. It's the first time an explanation makes total sense to me and really seems like that might be answer. Although I knew about signal degredation before, I didn't know it could manifest itself in this manner.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top