HELP! 8800GTX GPU Volt mod gone wrong!

[eclypse]

HELP!!!!

I just did the volt mods to my Evga 8800GTX card and i have a small tiny prob.. I broke that damn tiny black resistor thats used for the GPU volt mod!

Now i have a few spare card lying around that i can use for parts.. Just find the identical size black resistor? Or could i just use a fixed resistor to replace it?

Oh btw.. Broke the damn thing by tuggin on the soldered wire trying to move another wire that was runing under it. Just tore that resistor right off and it looks like it snapped the end so i dont think i should use it again.

http://resources.vr-zone.com/Shamino/8800gtxvmod/1.jpg

[largon]

You're going to have to find a resistor of equal value.
Before going for a scavenge hunt...
Try to measure the one you ripped out - then perhaps you could just solder it back in. But AFTER soldering it back in MEASURE the resistance between the ends of the resistor. You're good if the between the ends of the SOLDERED resistor is close to 35Ω.

[eclypse]

You're going to have to find a resistor of equal value.
Before going for a scavenge hunt...
Try to measure the one you ripped out - then perhaps you could just solder it back in. But AFTER soldering it back in MEASURE the resistance between the ends of the resistor. You're good if the between the ends of the SOLDERED resistor is close to 35Ω.

Ok thanks..

[eclypse]

Welp, i tested the chip that came off. It reads .33 so i guess its alright even though it looked like i could see a small part of it that broke off layin where the chip was under a loop.

Kinda looks like i may of ripped up the solder pad on the one side where the wire was attached.. hoping its still good.

The chip is still on the wire.. Dont know if i should just try soldering it back on while its still on the wire as is, or take it off the wire and solder it on the board and then solder the wire back on after.. I'm thinking the latter as i dont want to risk the chip coming off again or burning it up solder it so many times.. Had to be the smallest damn chip i've ever seen. Cant imagine anything smaller! heh.

[eclypse]

You're going to have to find a resistor of equal value.
Before going for a scavenge hunt...
Try to measure the one you ripped out - then perhaps you could just solder it back in. But AFTER soldering it back in MEASURE the resistance between the ends of the resistor. You're good if the between the ends of the SOLDERED resistor is close to 35Ω.

Hello,

Viper john said he may be able to fix the card but he needs to be sure of the true value of that resistor. Said you can only get a true reading with the resistor off the board.. So how sure are you that its 35 Ohms? Where did you find this out?

[dengyong]

it's much higher than 35ohms

[eclypse]

With it installed or uninstalled? Do you know what it is?

[dengyong]

I don't know its value, but its got to be well above 35ohms. This should be in a single thread.

[Jokester_wild]

Why don't you just send the whole thing to viperjohn.

[eclypse]

Why don't you just send the whole thing to viperjohn.

I probably will but money is really tight ATM.. if theres a chance to fix it i'd like to give it a go.. it would make my wife happy.

[largon]

Indeed the resistance of the part is likely much higher than 35Ω.
The catch is that it is a part of the vGPU sense resistor network that is ~35Ω (or a few Ω lower) for 8800GTX. When you measure the resistor unsoldered you'll get the absolute value of the part (could be pretty much anything). But when you solder it to it's place and measure it you'll read the resistance of the whole network thus you can tell if the part is operating correctly.

[T_M]

WOuldnt it also be an option to just leave the resistor off and then solder a VR direct onto the IC leg?

[eclypse]

Welp theres no IC leg.. All i could solder to is where the pad trace leads to and thats to the right where theres a covered circle.

[T_M]

I meant the leg of that big square chip.
The pad/resistor that you are trying to solder onto is connected directly to a leg on that chip.
Use your DMM and find the leg which is connected. It's approximately the middle one on the bottom edge of that photo above.

[eclypse]

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/DSC07157a.jpg

Theres a close up pic of my damage.. Thought i posted it here before.

So if the trace does go to where the pad was then i should beable to just connect the wire there eh?

So what about the missing resistor? Does'nt that break the circut? Does'nt matter?

[largon]

The red spots (to ground, blue) can be used to solder a VR, incuding the marked leg on the Primarion controller:

67577

edit:
Errmm...
Now that I look the pic more closely; did you rip the trace+pad out when the resistor came off? I mean the brownish spot where the other end of the resistor used to be.

[eclypse]

:( yes. It was freezing outside and i was in the garage with the door half open to vent. That is why i think it came off so easy.

[eclypse]

Thanks for the help so far guys! So i have other spots (marked with the red dots) i could solder the VR?

Yes the pad was pulled off with the resistor.. Thats why i'm hoping theres somewhere else i could connect the VR and hopfully leave the resistor off.

[largon]

Please measure the resistor that's still there. :)
(the one that has both red and blue mark on it)

[eclypse]

Please measure the resistor that's still there. :)
(the one that has both red and blue mark on it)

HOLD IT.. i measured the wrong one.. Card was upside down! lol 1 sec please.

[eclypse]

Ok.. It reads .516 Ohms with the DMM set at 2k.

EDIT: If i hold it there long enough to slowly climbs to .517 and stops.. So make that .517 to be dead on. Thats with ground prove on the ground end and positive on the positive side.

[largon]

Ok.
Does the resistor that was ripped out read anything at all?

[eclypse]

Ok.
Does the resistor that was ripped out read anything at all?

Yes it reads .035 Ohms.

The chip is still on that wire that goes to the VR though if that matters.

Its hard to get a reading as its dancing all over the place but thats where it finally stops at 3 attemps.

[eclypse]

i'll also add that the end of the resistor did chip off.. The tinned end. So theres no way to resolder it back on as i tried before i knew that the solder pad was also gone on the other end. It did still look ok untill i used flux which cleaned the pad area and then i knew forsure the pad was gone.

[eclypse]

I also have a dead 8800GTS card and i've noticed that the volt mod is simular.. Wondering if it used the exact same resistor for the GPU volt mod.

So if i had to replace the resistor and fix the pad and trace (Which i have to experiance in doing i atleast MIGHT have a resistor from that card. Though i was told trying to remove that resistor would only damage it.

[largon]

Perhaps you mean it read "0.035" at DMM set at "2K"? (That would be 35Ω, not 0.035Ω)

If this is the case it means the part is perfectly functional, and you could solder it back in.

You'd need to connect those two points in the pic above marked with big red dots with a short bit of wire with the now missing resistor soldered on it's original place with the other end of the part soldered on the same wire that connects the two red spots.
:)

edit:
Yes, you could use desolder the corresponding part from the GTS. Or even solder a VR set at 35Ω.

[eclypse]

Crap sorry i didnt see that the thread went to a page 2. lol

As i posted before.. You might of missed it so i'll quote it here:


i'll also add that the end of the resistor did chip off.. The tinned end. So theres no way to resolder it back on as i tried before i knew that the solder pad was also gone on the other end. It did still look ok untill i used flux which cleaned the pad area and then i knew forsure the pad was gone.

[eclypse]

So you want me to do like so in the pic??

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/solder_points.jpg

unsolder the chip from the GTS and solder one end to where the pad still exist leaving the other side unsoldered as theres no pad.

Then connect a small wire connecting the 2 red dot marked chips together along with the new resistor in the middle. So basicly bridging those 3 ends together cause theres a missing pad under the torn off resistor.

Ok.. So now when i get that done. Where do i connect the volt mod wire to? The same chip as before or is there a safer spot so i dont mess up the bridged resistors?


Also to remove the same resistor from the 8800GTS.. Whats the safest way? Desoldering braid?

[eclypse]

Ok.. So if i deside to use a VR.. i have a 200 Ohm VR handy. Tune that to 35 ohms and solder one lead to each of the red dot marked chips and its good to go?

[eclypse]

Ok would this work?

With the VR set at 35 Ohms.

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/solder_points2.jpg

[eclypse]

Yup.
That's exactly what I meant.

Your referring to the pic in post 30 right? Just want to be sure.

Ok so if i get that done.. where do i connect the wire from the other 1K VR since the resistor is gone?

HEHE.. If this works man i'll be the happiest man alive! Reach threw the screen and give ya a big old hug :)

I'll have to reward you with something..

[eclypse]

Wierd.. your posts keep disapearing? There here one sec and gone another.

[largon]

(just deleted a post as I saw your pic (http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/solder_points2.jpg))

No.
Solder a wire like the yellow line in this pic (http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/solder_points.jpg). Then do the mod normally.

[eclypse]

(just deleted a post as I saw your pic (http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/solder_points2.jpg))

No.
Solder a wire like the yellow line in this pic (http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/solder_points.jpg). Then do the mod normally.

Ok.. Then in that one i'll have to get the resistor from the GTS and solder only one end of it to the only exsiting pad thats left and the other end to the wire that will connect all three chips.

Ok.. So if i get that done where do i connect the wire from the 1K VR for the GPu volt mod?

[largon]

Then connect a small wire connecting the 2 red dot marked chips together along with the new resistor in the middle. So basicly bridging those 3 ends together cause theres a missing pad under the torn off resistor.Yes.
Ok.. So now when i get that done. Where do i connect the volt mod wire to? The same chip as before or is there a safer spot so i dont mess up the bridged resistors?
Ok.. So if i get that done where do i connect the wire from the 1K VR for the GPu volt mod?
There's only 3 possible locations: the proverbial red spots (http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/solder_points.jpg).

[eclypse]

Ok thanks..

The part that sucks is that i really dont have time to do this till probably like Monday.

Though i may have a chance to quickly remove the resistor from the 8800GTS. That would be a good step since it may help to know forsure the reading from it.

[largon]

It will read the same on the GTS.
~520Ω & ~35Ω are a perfect match.

[eclypse]

I've done it!

I got the little bugger off the 8800GTS and it reads 33.5 ohms with the DMM set to 200 Ohms.

Close enough?

It looks intact as its not cracked and it perfectly tinned on both sides so it looks usable.

[eclypse]

Oh and since i was'nt going to use the original resistor (that was still on the end of the wire) i cut the end of the wire taking it off the VR so i could get a good reading as it was hard to before.

It shows 34 Ohms solid.

[G H Z]

How did the repair work out eclypse?

[eclypse]

How did the repair work out eclypse?

I wont have time to get this done till Monday :(

[eclypse]

Cant wait, i finally can fix my card tomorrow! Nervious as well..

Any last min tips? Should i use a solid core wire to bridge those 3 with or multi wire?

Whats the best way to solder on that tiny resistor? I feel like i'm gona need 3 hands to hold it down, hold the iron and another to hold the solder.

[eclypse]

Oh and when i finally get the resistor in place and the wire bridge.. I guess i'll have to solde the VR wire to the bridge wire as i highly doubt i can solder the VR to that super tiny IC leg! lol.. I wish though.

[gOtVoltage]

wrap rubberbands around the card to hold wire in place between both resistors it will free your hands:up:


The rubber bands will hold (THEwireDown) inbetween [] I [] I [] the resitors if ya know what i mean...I=rubberband []=resistor:up:

You can even use non stick Blue painters tape:up: Just take your time and dont use to much heat....I only use a 15watt iron with a fine grounded tip to a point...

[eclypse]

Hey nice tip! Thanks for that :)

[gOtVoltage]

Hey nice tip! Thanks for that :)

OM*G your modded case is soooo Priceless......:up: You make the NASA windtunnel @Moffet Field look obsolete:up:

[eclypse]

hehe.. Thank man! Sad thing is that i had to tear that case apart since i've moved on and have to room to store it. I've since done a custom modded Moutain Mods UFO case for now. Just a temp quick fix as i seen it till summer comes and i can hunt down the next killer blower fan! :)

[eclypse]

Welp i went over the volt mod area one last time with a DMM to be sure before i start workin on it and i've noticed something.

Check out the pic.


http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/DSC07157a(1).jpg

The areas with the yellow dots have continuity! So looks to me like that chip on the left is connected to the first ic leg and not leg 6 like the broken resistor and the part to the right of it.

I've also scratched the coating off the area where the broken trace leads to and checked for continuity to the part to the right and yes it looks like the broken resistor and the resistor next to it to the right are connected.

So i was supposed to take a wire and solder it across the 3 resistors.. Well now it looks like i should only do it to the broken resistor and the part to the right only. Which doing so i feel i should go for attaching the VR to the 6th IC leg (Which looks damn near impossable!). I just think thats now my only option as i dont want to mess up the 2 resistors that will be bridged or the soldered wire if i try to touch it again with the VR wire.

[eclypse]

I believe i fixed the card! hehe


http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/DSC07167a.jpg

Well i sat there for a long time figureing out how i wanted to do it. Finally decided to solder the one side of the replacement 33.5 Ohm resistor (From a 8800GTS 320MB) to the one pad that was left. Once i did that i twisted a fine wire together.. I only twisted about 3 strands from the wire so to make it very thin. I then tinned the wire. I then trimmed the wire the length i needed. Long enough to reach from the resistor to the pad where the broken trace lead to. I also had to scratch off the coating on the pad as it was painted. Applied flux to the new pad and held some solder on the pad while i hit it with the iron to tin it.

Once i got the wire to the right length (Took awhile! heh) i applied a tiny bit of flux to both the new pad and the end of the resistor. I placed the wire perfectly so it touched both the pad and the resistor and held it down with a tooth pick. I took my new cheap $7.99 25 WATT "Fine Tip" iron from Radio Shack and held it on the one end of the wire bridge where the new pad was and bam! That baby soldered that bridge right up!

Tested the new connection out with the DMM and all matches exactly what the readings are on the other good 8800GTX.


Oh yeah.. I did the mod this way as i didnt want to attempt to solder the VR wire to that damn small IC leg. Now i can attach it to the resistor to the left.

So in the end all i've done was take the same resistor off a dead 8800GTS card and solder it back on. Only one side was soldered as there was only 1 pad left. Then take a wire and reconnect the broken trace by connecting the wire to the pad that the trace led to and the resistor.

Now back to finally finishing the mod and testing it out.

[Timbosan]

:up: good work, bet youre stoked :)

[eclypse]

:up: good work, bet youre stoked :)

Hell yeah baby!

With something that small and delicate, i know i only have one shot at it! :up:

[eclypse]

ITS FIXED!!! ITS WORKING! ITS ALIVE!!!!!! ITS RUNING 3DMARK 06!!! LOL

EDIT: Voltages shown below are taken while the system was in the bios menu.

Memory voltage

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/DSC07172.JPG


GPU Voltage

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/DSC07173.JPG


Thats default untouched voltage after the mods. I have no idea what the default voltage is supposed to be nor any ideas as to what the voltage i should be shootin for on each, yet.. hehe Time to read i guess.. but first its time to volt mod the other card! :eek: :shakes:

Thanks to all that helped me figure this out!

[G H Z]

Good work eclypse! :clap:

[eclypse]

Thanks! Thankfully the second card mod went good last night and no probs.

Today is gona be a fun day of overclocking :)

[Timbosan]

awesome work, now show us some insane scores with those babies! :up:

[eclypse]

Anyone know what a safe voltage is for the memory?? I've looked all over the net and no one seems to be using over 2v.. Maybe 2.05 max.

Whats the defalut voltage for the mem on a 8800GTX?

[Timbosan]

1.95v is default GTX voltage, i have seen someone using 2.3v on the mem but it was cooled by DICE or cascade or something. Id say 1.95v is safe, over that it may be getting towards the max of the mem PWM.

[KingK76]

Nice work man! So what point did you end up using for the mod? I still haven't done mine (I attempted it but that loose resistor scared me off! I'll attempt it again with some finer solder and renewed wits on the weekend...) so it would be nice to know if that SMC is a go for the mod. Thanks for your help E.

[gOtVoltage]

Im on Air with 2.10v on the memory @2304mhz but i also have a 320mb:D My stock MemVolts were 2.08v by shear luck and i penciled the memory risistor with one good strike from a B2pencil to make it 2.10v,was easiest vmod.

I even checked the Volts four times @ boot @Windows @2dmode and under 3dmode all showed 2.08v memory loaded,then i penciled it to 2.10v stable.

[Timbosan]

its 1.95v, the card that 1.98v was measured on was overvolting by 0.03v. Is your card a superclocked version? that may explain the 2.08v stock mem voltage. You'd assume that if the manufacturer set 2.08v, then it must be safe long term. Look up the IC's themselves and check their specifications/max ratings.

[eclypse]

Nice work man! So what point did you end up using for the mod? I still haven't done mine (I attempted it but that loose resistor scared me off! I'll attempt it again with some finer solder and renewed wits on the weekend...) so it would be nice to know if that SMC is a go for the mod. Thanks for your help E.

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/AltVModSpot.jpg

You could use a 400 Ohm to 1K Ohm VR.

Also i used a cheap 25 WATT fine tip iron and Rosin Soldering Flux (Paste) and .022 dia High-Tech Rosin core Silver-Bearing Solder from Radio Shack :D Works in a pinch.

Dab a tiny bit of flux on the end of the resistor your soldering to and pre tin the wire end. Pre route your wire from the VR to the resistor. Try to keep the wire flat so theres no prob with something catching the wire and pulling it off later on. Hold the wire in place with a pair of tweezers and with your iron you want to make contact with the part/pad and the wire at the same time. Hold for a 1 sec and get out. These little resistors will cook so dont mess around to long. Also if you mess up the first time and its not soldered right, wait about 20-30 secs for the part to cool before hitting it again with the iron. Clean up the area with a cue-tip and 99% Isopropyl alcohol and your good to go.

[eclypse]

Thanks for the info on the mem voltage.. I'm gona try 2.1v max and see what happends. Ticks me off cause i cant even overclock the mem at all with my card at its max core/shadder clock. With the card at default timings, i can overclock the mem to 1050=2100Mhz stable.

So i'm hoping that i dont get stuck at 900=1800Mhz hehe.

Oh and i'll just toss this out.. Its early but so far looks like at 1.55v in SLI i can do 720/1782/900 stable in 3dmark 06.

[Norway]

Thanks for the repair "mod" :clap:

My memory runs at 2.24v passive cooled by swiftech copper mem cooler, done that for about 9-10 months and they are still working ;)

1215Mhz (2430Mhz :rocker: )

[KingK76]

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/AltVModSpot.jpg

You could use a 400 Ohm to 1K Ohm VR.

Also i used a cheap 25 WATT fine tip iron and Rosin Soldering Flux (Paste) and .022 dia High-Tech Rosin core Silver-Bearing Solder from Radio Shack :D Works in a pinch.

Dab a tiny bit of flux on the end of the resistor your soldering to and pre tin the wire end. Pre route your wire from the VR to the resistor. Try to keep the wire flat so theres no prob with something catching the wire and pulling it off later on. Hold the wire in place with a pair of tweezers and with your iron you want to make contact with the part/pad and the wire at the same time. Hold for a 1 sec and get out. These little resistors will cook so dont mess around to long. Also if you mess up the first time and its not soldered right, wait about 20-30 secs for the part to cool before hitting it again with the iron. Clean up the area with a cue-tip and 99% Isopropyl alcohol and your good to go.

Thanks for that info! I will let you know how it goes (the weekend is best time for me). What kind of score did you get on your 3D mark06 SLI run?

[eclypse]

Welp i've been having some crazy strange probs that i've never seen before.

Everything was fine the first day.. so i thought. Started by bumping the voltage to 1.55v on the core and left the mem alone for now but it was sittin at 2.0v.

Found the max GPU Mhz and the Shadder seperate and then played with blending them together. But all hell broke loose on day 2 when i attempted to overclock the memory.

The memory would not overclock at all with everything else overclocked. I tried upping the voltage on the memory to 2.05 just to see if it started coming around and nope! In order to get the memory to overclock from 900 to 950 i had to drop all overclocking and run the card at stock. I was able to hit 1150= 2300Mhz with overclocking the memory alone.

Strange i thought! So i started thinking that maybe i was giving the card more voltage then it wanted to handle so i tried lowering the GPU voltage and see if it made any differenece.. At first it looked like it would still run the high overclock with lower voltage around 1.5v I did have it before to 1.6v.

Ran fine untill i rebooted.. So i lowered the clocks to play witht he ram again. i upped the voltage on the memory to 2.1v and thats when all hell broke loose. Damn 3dmark 06 kept locking up almost right away..

I'm dual booting WinXP Pro and Vista 64 ultimate.. I was just benching in vista first and i almost ended up trashing vista as it kept locking up and i had to reboot so many times. At first it would say there was a prob with the 2nd card in device manager and i could'nt get it working untill i turned the power off totally and powered back up. Also everytime the graphics drivers were gone and i had to keep installing them. I'm like what the hell is going on???

I was thinking something is wrong with the 2nd card untill i would boot into winxp and see that everything was fine. The lock ups kept coming.. Then it was the first card that was in trouble on boot up.

Finally i sat there and thought about what i changed that made this all start.. It was the memory voltage. Wierd cause i thought 2.1v was fine. So i lower it back down to 2.0v and everything started to seem fine again.

I was using winxp from then on cause i thought forsure vista had it and i would have to reinstall that again.. though i wanted to wait til i got the cards figured out so i would'nt trash vista again.

In winxp i finally got my overclocks back on the gpu + shadder. The card was'nt locking up anymore which was good but i still didnt understand why i could'nt overclock the mem at all with the rest of the card.

So finally i lower the voltage down as far as i could on the memory.. all the way down to 1.96v= defalut voltage. Guess what??? I FINALLY COULD OVERCLOCK THE DAMN RAM WITH THE REST OF THE CARD!! lol

Does it make any sense??? NOPE!

Overclocks before with memory at 2.0-2.1v:

core 702-720/ shadders 1782-1834 /mem 900 :(

overclocks with memory at 1.96v:

core 702-720/ shadders 1782-1834 /mem 1150-1200= 2300-2400Mhz


Someone please explain it to me??? Why are my memory not liking voltage?? Are they overheating? Is there a program that reads the memory temps?


Also i've read that people report that the voltage on the memory jumps up like .6 durring load.. I've noticed no movment in the voltage at all. its at whatever i set it to and its solid in idle or load.

Did i do something wrong with the volt mod to the memory??

[eclypse]

Welp whatever.. I'm getting tired of messing with it. I can get the memory to run threw 3dmark 06 once overclocked to 1000-1050 along with the GPU overclock but if i go for it twice like back to back it locks up everytime in the first test.

Seems like heat on the memory chips.. cause if i wait a 10-20 mins before letting it go threw again it will be fine.

So if i want a stable system i have to just overclock the GPU/Shadder.

Not a bad overclock though as its able to run over and over and over at 702/1836/900 at 1.58v. I managed a 3dmark 06 score of around 18,400+ in Vista 64. I'm runing a QX6700 at 3.7Ghz FSB at 1648.

I guess it will run me around $200+ if i want to cool the ram better then i am now.

[N1ck R1mer]

Someone please explain it to me??? Why are my memory not liking voltage?? Are they overheating?

Yepp, it looks like overheating. Use a fan, just direct some air stream to the card and if it helps with memory OC with higher voltages, it all because of memory overheating.

[eclypse]

Should have something to show today :) 2.2v on the ram to get 1000-1050 sucks though at high gpu clocks.

[gOtVoltage]

Should have something to show today :) 2.2v on the ram to get 1000-1050 sucks though at high gpu clocks.

Both of your cards are on stock heatsinks still?

Remeber mine is running with modified heatsink . Thus it cools the memory very well....

1st check temps and proceed to raise the clocks as below
Heat is most likely your problem with the memory . Even .10volts or higher is enuff to do nothing when the GPU is pumping the meory full of heat...To be able to have the best performance on a completley stock heatsink you should ""Always Oc the Memory to its fullest First"",then give it a little more juice... to Find the Max the mem runs with out having the GPU Above 700mhz! ...Once the limit is found then maybe lower it say one or two levels and start playing with the GPU and shader....

2nd Youll want to Start rasing the Shader Only above 700mhz as below
After its stable bring up the GPU to say 700 linked to shader, I think this will make shader 1648mhz .....From this point on raise only the shader to find max Shader and Memory point and then lower shader 1 0r 2 settings...Finally the Last step see if you can raise the GPU some more...


A few cool reasons why i always Overclock like this
The reason behind this is that the memory surounds the GPU!.. Since the GPU's heat impacts the memory the most ,you should always raise the memory first...

Because you want the highest memory clocks ,which is for high bandwidth=speed fps

The Gpu will net minamal gains compared to the memory...

When heat is the limiting factor you must raise the memory first...
The heat from rasing the GPU to its max setting first will cause the memory to overheat and not clock past 2000mhz most of the time and this is with Gpu@700mhz ..

All because of heat...Ive ran a minimum of 40+benches raising GPU between each run to evaluate this....

Provided you have water or good Air you can Now start using those volts to raise the bar,,My GTS320 below compared to GTX/Ultra in bandwidth

In return my card has a banwidth of 94.6 and i only have 320mb...Thats 12 Above a GTX and only 10 below a ULTRA which both have 768mb...

I know your cards can sqeeze more bandwidth and thats how i did it!

Just remeber its the heat building thats holding the GPU and memory from scaling real High...High heat will cause the Volts to have no effect when raised, it just adds to the Fire....In return the memory dosnt scale higher when that GPU is pumping out heat...

[eclypse]

Thanks for the info gOtVoltage! Though i've read others say that speed is all in the GPU and shadder and that the mem really only adds a few points.. so much people feel go for the highest GPU/Shadder and leave the mem be.

No i'm on water.. 2x swiftech blocks and mem heatsinks/DD12v-D4 pump Thermochill PA 120.3 rad on its own loop.

Nice clocks on that GTS!

[eclypse]

Well i've finally got some time to upload some pics for ya guys. Before overclocks i was getting in around 17,500 in 3DMark 06.. I was hoping to break 18,000 heh.. Blew that away.

Heres what i'm keepin it for now at 1.6v/2.2v <-- I will lower the voltage on the ram today as i'm sure i dont need that much.. though i remember runing the ram at 1000Mhz and 2.10 didnt seem like enough.. though it could of been something else wrong like rivertuner and the drivers not playing right.


http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/3700MHZ-684-1836-1000-winxp-YES!.jpg


Heres the highest stable 3dmark i could get with no artifacts..

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/3700MHZ-684-1836-1050-winxp-WOW!.jpg


Heres a shot at the highest core i could get stable at 1.6v along with the shadder and mem clock.. Basicly the highest each i could get to blend well.

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/3700MHZ-702-1836-945-WinXP-NICE!-3.jpg


I've had a hell of a time figuring out the proper way to overclock these cards with so limited info i could find online. I did have the card runing over 720-729 core but that was early on as i though i had to set the voltage under load! lol.. I set the core voltage at 1.6v under load so it really could of been 1.67+ Temps were 45c idle and 51c load. Figured it was like when i did the colt mod on my former 7800GTX cards as the coltage would'nt kick in till it was runing 3D.

So i doubt the ram is overheating much as its runing fine right now at 1000Mhz with 2.2v on them. I still would love to go with the Swiftech Stealth.. maybe hit the parents up for a X-Mas gift!

So early on i had probs with i believe rivertuner not overclocking both cards as i never saved the timings and rebooted.. That plus i've heard some say that the newest 192+ drivers dont allow overclocking or dont atleast on the ram. So everything was peachy once i switched to the newest offical drivers and stopped using rivertuner and just made a crap load of custom bios for the cards with different timings.

It was a sweet setup bios flashin with 684/1620/1000 - 684/1736/1000 - 684/1836/1000 ect.. ect.. All with different ram Mhz 900/945/1000/1027/1045/1080 hehe. No them all by heart after all that work.

I think 684 must be the sweet spot though.. I could'nt go higher then 702 with 1.6v stable though.. Would love to try 729 as i've heard someone say that the card really kicks up then.

Oh and vista's benches are about 1000 points lower.

I've played COD 4,UT3 and Crysis and all seems fine! Though i cant get crysis to run in 64bit mode in Vista 64 so i'm gona try reinstalling Vista today since all those lock ups from testing the overclocks must of messed it up.

Also i would love to hit 19,500+ or 20,000.. Any tips? Never tweaked 3dmark before and i'm have not tweaked any settings for the drivers or vista or winxp.

[eclypse]

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/DSC07209a.jpg


Quick pic of the 8800GTX SLI in the water loop.. Maybe this weekend i can finally show off the new custom mountain mods UFO case.. hehe. If i manage to i'll post a thread on it and also link it up in my signature.

Ahhh what the hell i'll post a quick tease since it shows the 2 rads and pump mounted in this shot.

http://home.comcast.net/~eclypse/DSC07036a.jpg

[Timbosan]

Thats a very nice score, good job :up:

i experienced something silmilar with my GTS - i had the ram at 1.88v (stock) and it would do 1026 mhz no artifacts. it would artifact at 1053. i modded the vmem with a fixed 10k resistor and increased vmem to 1.98v. I thought great and ran a 3d06 @ the same settings i had had before and it locked in GT2. Thought ok ill try again maybe it was just chance or OS instability and it locked in GT1. Thoroughly confused, i lowered ram to 1000 and it ran bench after bench without locking. I replaced the 10k fixed with a 20k VR and dropped vmem to 1.95v, and i can now do 1053 mhz rock stable in games & benches with no artifacts. So it seems on my card between 1.95v & 1.98v something strange happens that makes the mem decrease stable speed. Im yet to try higher than 1.98v but Id like to push the mem volts to 2.0 - 2.2v on my GTS to see if i can get more out of it but i dont know if its power circuitry can handle it, and it may net me negative results. Yours is a GTX and could handle it better.

On a side note i have found that for me, GT2 (firefly forest) in both 05 & 06 is the best test for showing up memory artifacts.

[eclypse]

Thats a very nice score, good job :up:

i experienced something silmilar with my GTS - i had the ram at 1.88v (stock) and it would do 1026 mhz no artifacts. it would artifact at 1053. i modded the vmem with a fixed 10k resistor and increased vmem to 1.98v. I thought great and ran a 3d06 @ the same settings i had had before and it locked in GT2. Thought ok ill try again maybe it was just chance or OS instability and it locked in GT1. Thoroughly confused, i lowered ram to 1000 and it ran bench after bench without locking. I replaced the 10k fixed with a 20k VR and dropped vmem to 1.95v, and i can now do 1053 mhz rock stable in games & benches with no artifacts. So it seems on my card between 1.95v & 1.98v something strange happens that makes the mem decrease stable speed. Im yet to try higher than 1.98v but Id like to push the mem volts to 2.0 - 2.2v on my GTS to see if i can get more out of it but i dont know if its power circuitry can handle it, and it may net me negative results. Yours is a GTX and could handle it better.

On a side note i have found that for me, GT2 (firefly forest) in both 05 & 06 is the best test for showing up memory artifacts.

Nice info there.. I'll be sure to play around with it this weekend and see what happends at differenet voltage.. Yep the firefly forest scene is the same for me. Also the last one the winter scene will show as well if you have the GPU or shadder too high. I'll see massive round circles (red spots) pop around the screen.. hehe.

[Timbosan]

Nice info there.. I'll be sure to play around with it this weekend and see what happends at differenet voltage.. Yep the firefly forest scene is the same for me. Also the last one the winter scene will show as well if you have the GPU or shadder too high. I'll see massive round circles (red spots) pop around the screen.. hehe.

hmmm ive never got the red circles in GT4. If my shader is one notch too high, i get tiny pixel artifacting (little white squares barely visible) best visible in GT3 when the zepplin/boat is hovering in the mist in the gorge - the mist shows the tiny white artifacts & 2 notches too high it will hard lock. If GPU is one notch too high i get a hard lock too.

there is definitely a point of balance to be found, between keeping IC's heat under control & keeping the vmem power clean and within the PWM's limits of efficiency.

[gOtVoltage]

hmmm ive never got the red circles in GT4. If my shader is one notch too high, i get tiny pixel artifacting (little white squares barely visible) best visible in GT3 when the zepplin/boat is hovering in the mist in the gorge - the mist shows the tiny white artifacts & 2 notches too high it will hard lock. If GPU is one notch too high i get a hard lock too.

there is definitely a point of balance to be found, between keeping IC's heat under control & keeping the vmem power clean and within the PWM's limits of efficiency.

Those are all heat related .....I only say them once when my heatsink was stock....Thats one reason why i Modded it to begin with....

Just remeber the GPU dumps all the heat in the middle of the memory ...so when the GPU is Cool,, Its all cool:up: :up:

[eclypse]

Was asked for the original photos for the fix since the old ones are lost since changing ISPs long ago.

I was quite surprised i found them as i looked forever and could'nt find them.. Here they were still on my notebook that i used everyday and i was searching threw my external hard drive were i back everything up over the years.. I usually am a pack rat when it comes to deleting anything and have tons of old drivers and programs hehe.. good for something i guess.

Re edited some of the pics to help describe what i did just encase.


http://media.use.com/images/s_2/a5dee97f926ab877ec07_1.jpg (http://www.use.com/EVGA_8800GTX_FIX_a5dee97f926ab877ec07?p=1)
http://media.use.com/images/s_2/a5dee97f926ab877ec07_2.jpg (http://www.use.com/EVGA_8800GTX_FIX_a5dee97f926ab877ec07?p=2)
http://media.use.com/images/s_2/a5dee97f926ab877ec07_3.jpg (http://www.use.com/EVGA_8800GTX_FIX_a5dee97f926ab877ec07?p=3)
http://media.use.com/images/s_2/a5dee97f926ab877ec07_4.jpg (http://www.use.com/EVGA_8800GTX_FIX_a5dee97f926ab877ec07?p=4)
http://media.use.com/images/s_2/a5dee97f926ab877ec07_5.jpg (http://www.use.com/EVGA_8800GTX_FIX_a5dee97f926ab877ec07?p=5)
http://media.use.com/images/s_2/a5dee97f926ab877ec07_6.jpg (http://www.use.com/EVGA_8800GTX_FIX_a5dee97f926ab877ec07?p=6)
http://media.use.com/images/s_2/a5dee97f926ab877ec07_7.jpg (http://www.use.com/EVGA_8800GTX_FIX_a5dee97f926ab877ec07?p=7)
http://media.use.com/images/s_2/a5dee97f926ab877ec07_8.jpg (http://www.use.com/EVGA_8800GTX_FIX_a5dee97f926ab877ec07?p=8)
http://media.use.com/images/s_2/a5dee97f926ab877ec07_9.jpg (http://www.use.com/EVGA_8800GTX_FIX_a5dee97f926ab877ec07?p=9)

[eclypse]

BTW.. The card has worked perfectly since the fix for the past 4 years! hehe. A couple of months i took the whole computer apart to sell it and never did.. all sitting in a pile against the wall in the original boxes.

Now i'm wanting to build a whole new computer from scratch.. something i have not done since i built my first ever computer 15 years ago or so.. hehe. Should be a blast.